


24/7 (i’ll be there to listen anytime)

by maggiesbombshell



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Modern AU, Time Travel, basically a life is strange au, catra swears a lot bc she deserves to, hordak and shadow weaver are the scum of the earth, theres actually a consistent plot here wow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:41:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 25,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22966351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maggiesbombshell/pseuds/maggiesbombshell
Summary: catra and adora are best friends until adora moves away without warning. she comes back four years later and wants to fix things but the process is potentially cut short after an incident between catra and hordak. or at least until adora finds herself in a previous timeline.or the life is strange AU literally no one asked for.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Past Catra/Scorpia
Comments: 28
Kudos: 78





	1. chapter one

**Author's Note:**

> tw// violence and mentions of suicide

Adora doesn’t hate the school of Mystacor. She knows she’s lucky to be here but it’s just not what she thought it would be. Sure, Glimmer and Bow are there to keep her company but she’s always felt like something was missing. 

Adora's had the jitters all day long. She has the urge to just lay her head down on the desk in front of her and use the class as a napping period but she knows that won’t do her grades any good.

“Adora, how about you?”

Adora snaps out of her daze and looks up. Her Literature teacher, Mrs. Woven is a few feet away from her desk.

She clears her throat. “Um, sorry. What was the question again?” Adora hears the girl sitting behind her snicker.

Mrs. Woven eyes her with a look Adora finds hard to read. "What did Isabel Allende have in mind when writing Tomas Vargas' character?" 

While Adora remains silent she continues.

"The book you and your classmates read independently, The Gold of Tomas Vargas. What do you think Isabel had in mind when she wrote it?"

She read the book. In fact, she repeated several sections of the book in order to get a better understanding of it. Yet her mind is completely blank. 

Adora shakes her head. "I completely forgot Mrs. Woven, I'm sorry."

"That is alright, Adora. We all have our off days."

Groups of students begin to whisper and Adora's never been happier to hear the bell ring.

* * *

  
"So you just left without a trace?" Glimmer asks.

"I left a note..."

Bow raises an eyebrow. "After the fact?"

"Look guys, I know it looks bad- and it is but today is the day I finally fix it all. I almost cried out of joy when I found out about the scholarship because I was so excited to finally see her again.” 

Glimmer stops the car in front of Catra’s house. It looked exactly the same. 

Adora pauses for a moment. “Do you guys think she’ll forgive me?”

  
“You didn’t mean to hurt her right?” Bow asks.

“Of course not.”

Glimmer turns her head from the driver's seat. “And you’re sorry?”

“Very.”

Bow gives her an encouraging smile. “She’ll come around.”

“Okay.” Adora takes a deep breath and slowly opens the car door. She steps onto the sidewalk in front of the house’s driveway. “I’ll call you guys later.”

She shuts the door and Bow waves as Glimmer drives away.

Adora makes her way towards the front door and knocks four times before she can change her mind. She hears Catra’s voice yelling at someone else in the house and nearly gasps.

The door swings open and Catra is standing right in front of her. Her eyes dart to Catra’s wildly curly hair that previously cascaded down her back now stopping right above her shoulders. A black beanie sits on her head and she’s wearing a bright red tank top and ripped jeans. She’d grown, but Adora still has a few inches on her. She almost smiles at that.

Adora finally meets Catra’s eyes to see her just as surprised as she is. But before Adora can come up with anything to say Catra’s eyebrows furrow and she abruptly shuts the door. Adora slips her hand through the opening just before it closes. She ignores the pain that rushes above her knuckles.

“Do you want to break your hand? Cause I’m pretty sure that would negatively affect your superstar softball career.” 

“Catra-”

“Who’s at the door, Catra?” Adora notices Catra jump at the voice.

“No one important. They’re leaving now.” Catra looks her dead in the eye through the opening, her hand still in place. 

Adora remains where she is and frowns at Catra, letting her eyes get glassy. It was a look Catra could never say no to whenever she wanted or needed her help. 

Catra rolls her eyes and opens the door wider. She takes Adora’s hand and kicks the front door shut. Catra puts a finger over her lips before turning to slowly walk up the stairs. Adora notices that they’re dark brown and wooden now. 

Her bedroom door still has a letter C with neon paint splatters on it attached to the front from when they were children. Catra lets Adora walk in first before shutting the door.

“Now that I let you in, can you please explain to me why you’re here? And it better be good because if I get caught with someone in my room Hordak is gonna kill me.”

Adora rehearsed what she was gonna say everyday since she initially found out about her being able to move back to Brightmoon. But now that she’s in Catra’s slightly messy room (it always was) with her mis-matched eyes staring into her soul she doesn’t know what to say. 

She starts by clearing her throat. “Y’know the school of Mystacor? The one you enrolled about a month before-”

Catra raises her eyebrows and crosses her arms. “A month before you left me without warning?”

This was gonna be harder than she thought. 

“Yeah, and I’m sorry about that. I didn’t want to leave you, y’know.”

“The least you could’ve done was tell me in advance. Or maybe not just leave a note in my room right after my mother’s funeral service.” Bitterness was practically oozing from her voice. 

“I didn’t know-” Adora pauses. “that was going to happen.” 

Catra laughs dryly. “Cry me a fucking river, Adora. You knew when you were leaving and you could’ve told me sooner. As someone who was your best friend for years, I deserved to know.”

“CATRA!” Catra’s body tenses and her eyes widen when she hears the voice yelling from downstairs. 

She looks up at Adora again and then her eyes quickly dart around the bedroom. “Stay in here. If you hear loud footsteps on the stairs get under my bed, then pull the blanket so that it covers the space between the baseboard and the floor.” 

Adora nods and Catra leaves the room. 

She looks around Catra’s room. Several alternative band posters are on the wall above her bed and old pictures of Catra with her mom and band tickets are on a corkboard in front of her desk. Adora walks closer towards the desk and picks up a picture frame that’s lying face down. A girl their age is tightly hugging Catra and grinning from ear to ear. Catra isn’t hugging her back but there’s a small smile on her face. Adora can tell that it’s genuine.

She notices a necklace behind the frame as well. Adora gasps as she picks it up and grasps the one around her neck through her shirt. 

It’s an A letter pendant with a blue gemstone embedded at the bottom of it. Catra’s mom got it for her for Christmas when they were 11 and Catra got a matching one with the letter C. The gemstone embedded in Catra’s is dark red.

They switched necklaces the day Catra left to attend the school of Mystacor without Adora. She remembers Catra said it was so that they’ll always have a piece of each other with them when they’re apart. 

She didn't think Catra would keep it after all of this time. After she left her. Adora wouldn’t have blamed her for it. 

Adora pulls her own necklace out from under her shirt and gently places Catra’s back on the desk. She slowly walks towards the bedroom door as if a creak in the floor would cause Hordak to come running upstairs to investigate. Hordak’s yelling about stolen Mystacor laptops and some woman named Entrapta and she thinks about the mornings Catra’s mom would spend teaching them how to make breakfast. She’s never seen Hordak’s face but she couldn’t picture him doing anything like that. 

Adora hears Catra yell back about a kid named Ian and Entrapta’s name is mentioned once more. Then the yelling on Catra’s end comes to a stop. She doesn’t notice that her hands are shaking until she places one on the bedroom door to softly push it open. 

Adora takes a step into the hallway and freezes. 

“All you’ve done is interfere with my plans and make things harder for business. I should’ve listened when Mrs. Woven told me all about you. She mentioned how you were a delinquent which proved itself when you got yourself kicked out of Mystacor.” 

“Please...stop.” The voice is faint.

“Catra.” She whispers. Adora walks towards the stairs. 

“But she didn’t tell me that you were a liar as well.”

Gargling and gasps of air follow and Adora rushes down the stairs. 

“Catra!” Hordak’s hand is around Catra’s neck and her back is against the wall beside the staircase. Her feet are dangling a few inches in the air. Hordak’s head turns and he makes eye contact with Adora. Catra’s body falls limp to the floor. 

“NO!” Adora doesn't remember when she grabbed onto the C pendant but her hold on the necklace tightens at the sight of Catra on the cold hard wood floor.

But immediately after she notices, she’s back upstairs and the A lettered necklace she gave to Catra is back in her hand.

Adora drops the necklace and takes in her surroundings. She has to be dreaming.   
She shouldn’t be back in Catra’s room, she didn’t go back upstairs. She should be downstairs, with Hordak, Catra’s uncle - legal guardian matter of fact, who could kill their sibling’s own child? Adora wouldn’t consider someone like that to be family- and Catra. She should be down there with Catra, her best friend, who could very well be dead at the moment.

“I didn’t steal shit! What the fuck am I supposed to do with school issued laptops? The only people that know how to hack those types of things are Entrapta- whos’ gone- and your twelve year old lackey or whatever the hell you consider him to be, Ian!”, Catra argues.

Adora wouldn’t be shocked to hear Catra yelling at Hordak if she didn’t just see her lifeless body on the ground a mere two minutes ago.

But if she isn’t dreaming, that means Catra’s alive somehow. That means she can save her and that’s all that really matters. She’d be damned if she finally got to see Catra again just for her to die helplessly in her own home by the hands of her own uncle. 

Which means she has to do this right. She can’t just run down there and expect him to let Catra go. She’d heard the rumors about how Hordak and his security team dealt with things around Brightmoon and the Fright Zone area. He could give Catra a fatal blow or tighten his grip and she’d be gone in a matter of minutes. Hordak towers over both of them so he could easily do the same to Adora herself.

If she remembers correctly, since Catra was just yelling about Entrapta and Ian she should have approximately a minute before Hordak first grabs her. Then about two more before he begins to insult her and tighten his hold, which will lead to Catra struggling to breathe.   
Adora feels sick to her stomach just thinking about it. 

She walks over to Catra’s closet and opens both doors. The old softball bat in the corner catches her eye. 

Perfect. 

She picks up the bat and places it over her shoulder. Catra stopped yelling after she opened the closet so she needs to hurry. 

Adora takes a deep breath. She has no idea how this situation came to be but if it’s giving her the opportunity to save Catra she’ll gratefully take the offer. 

She enters the hallway and heads towards the stairs without hesitation. She can hear Catra coughing and gasping as she runs down the steps. 

As Adora approaches the first floor she grabs ahold of the bat with free hand as well. She steps out into the area and Hordak’s in her peripheral vision. She flexes her hands in attempt to calm down the trembling.

Adora swallows hard as he meets her eye. Hordak scowls. 

“Leave. Her. Alone!” She runs right up to him and his grip on Catra loosens. She swings low. Catra falls to the ground on all fours and Hordak is sent flying back. 

Adora drops the bat and lets herself fall to her knees. Catra’s gasping for air and she puts her hands on her shoulders. “It’s okay, you’re okay.”

Her eyes dart around the room. Hordak’s slumped against the wall across from them. “We need to get out of here...Do you have a car?”

Catra nods very slowly. 

“Do you know where the keys are?”

“Counter.” Her voice is hoarse and Adora can barely hear it. 

She spots the keys in the kitchen and grabs them. Adora helps Catra up.

Catra’s hand lightly brushes against the irritated ring around her neck. She looks at Hordak with an expressionless look on her face. “Motherfucker.”

  
“I can drive.” Catra says as she stares directly at her from outside of the passengers car door. 

Adora gives her a look of annoyance. 

Leave it to Catra to still be stubborn even after nearly being strangled to death. 

“Catra. You’re still not breathing properly, and you’re still in shock. There’s no way I’m letting you drive right now.”

Catra doesn’t respond nor make eye contact.   
Adora takes what she’s given and unlocks the car. She looks over to Catra once she enters. 

The beanie is just barely resting atop her head and the bruises are beginning to form around her neck. Catra’s head is resting against her window and her face is completely blank. Her eyes are gazing but not particularly focused on whatever is directly right in front of her line of vision. 

Adora starts to drive. “What are you thinking?” She thinks asking if she was okay is kind of a dumb question.

Catra’s index finger lightly touches her neck as if it’s fragile chinaware. “Just trying to pinpoint the exact moment when my life went to shit.”

Adora’s silent.

Catra laughs hysterically but part of it sounds more like a wheeze. “Not even regular shit. More like a flaming hot pile of dog shit and god, you know how much I hate dogs. You probably should’ve just let me get choked out by him or whatever. Maybe then this nightmare would finally be over.”

“Don’t say that. I’m gonna fix this somehow, I promise.” 

Catra doesn’t respond. She probably takes her word with a grain of salt. Adora doesn’t blame her.

“Do you have somewhere I can take you?”

Catra adjusts her beanie. “I know exactly where to go.”


	2. chapter two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> tw// depictions of violence

Catra knocks on a dark blue door. She gave Adora directions to a neighborhood not too far away from Catra’s home but didn’t say whose house it is. 

  
Adora glances over at Catra for a moment. A grey scarf she grabbed off of the back seat is around her neck to hide the damage. 

  
A lady with short white hair suddenly opens the door and immediately smiles at Catra. 

  
“Catra, my darling, oh how I’ve missed you.” She pulls her in for a hug and a Catra loosely returns it. 

  
The woman looks over to Adora.

  
“This is my...friend, Adora.” 

  
She smiles sweetly and pulls her into a hug. Adora is slightly surprised but returns it nonetheless. 

  
“I apologize dear, we’re a family of huggers. But it’s nice to meet you, Adora. “I’m Garnet, Catra’s friend Scorpia’s mom.” 

  
“Nice to meet you, Mrs. Garnet.” 

  
“Please, call me Garnet. Now come in, Opal will be excited to see you Catra.”

____________________________________________

“So what brings you two here?”

  
“Something uh, happened with Hordak.” Catra tugs at the thick scarf accompanying her neck. “We just needed somewhere to spend the night, sorry to bother you.”

  
Opal places a hand on Catra’s. “You’re fine, you know you’re always welcome here. Especially after all you’ve done to get answers for what happened to our Scorpia.” 

  
Adora looks at Catra for an explanation.

  
“Oh, sorry um...Scorpia went missing a little over a month ago after she was hanging out with me over at my place.” Catra’s eyes drop to the floor.

  
Adora notices a stack of missing person papers on the table. The girl’s face matches the one in Catra’s picture on her desk.

  
Opal squeezes Catra’s hand. “We don’t blame you for whatever happened Catra. You’ve used your access to databases to find leads and put up posters everywhere. Garnet even saw that you informed people on social media.”

  
Garnet crosses her arms. “Which is way more than Hordak and Horde industries have done. That entire company and system is just-“

  
Opal shoots her a look. Adora cringes.

  
They don’t know the half of it.

  
“I’m sorry. I always seem to forget that he’s your uncle.”

  
“It’s fine. He’s nothing like my mom to say the least.”

  
Adora can hear the twinge of disdain in her voice.

  
“Oh C’yra, I miss her dearly.” Garnet adds. 

  
“Me too.” Catra says, her voice rasping. Her face twists into something unreadable before she bursts into a coughing fit.

  
Her body shakes with each cough, Adora rubs her back with the palm of her hand. 

  
Scorpia’s moms look concerned before Catra reassures them. “Not sick, just allergy season for me.”

  
She wonders if Catra came up with that lie while they were on the way there in the car.

  
Opal gets up from her chair and grabs a bottle of water and slides it to Catra.

“Thanks.”

“You girls can go ahead and get settled. Our guest room is down the hall. We won’t bother you but don’t hesitate to ask if you need anything.”

  
____________________________________________

  
“You don’t have to stay here you know.” Adora just took a much needed shower. Catra’s lying down flat on her back with a wet towel on her neck.

“I can’t. Not with you here like this.”

  
Catra stares at the ceiling fan. “You’ve done it before.”

  
“That was different and you know it.”

  
“Eh. Not really.” 

  
Adora sits down next to her, knee up to her chest. “You could’ve died.”

  
And she did die. One of the times at least.

  
“I know. But that doesn’t give you the right to act like you’ve been by my side for the past four years. You don’t get to act like everything is fine between us when it’s not.”

  
“Catra-“

  
“When you left, guess who had to pick up the pieces? Guess who had to deal with their mother dying and then getting a complete asshole of an uncle to replace her? Me, I had to do it all alone because you hardly ever responded to my texts or picked up the phone.”

  
Catra’s still staring at the ceiling but Adora’s looking at her anyway.

  
“I needed you and you weren’t there. But you know who you were there for judging by your own social media? Your new best friends. People that didn’t know you for even a quarter as long as I knew you. And guess who you picked? Them. Which tells me that you never really cared at all”, Catra’s voice cracks before she breaks out into another fit of chest rattling coughs.

  
She sits up, and coughs up a small amount of blood.

  
“Let me-”

  
“No! Just leave me alone.” She makes eye contact with Adora for the first time since she’s entered the room. 

Adora notices her ragged breathing and her watery eyes. 

  
Catra abruptly bunches up the towel she was previously using and goes into the room’s built in bathroom.

  
__________________________________________________________________________

  
Adora doesn’t sleep through the night. 

She dreams of Horde industry’s security and a raid taking place in Etheria’s major cities as well as the capital itself. Glimmer and Bow are there and they’re seriously injured, Glimmer’s mom dies and Catra dies over and over again while Adora watches, unable to do anything.

  
She can feel herself tossing and turning throughout the night and wakes up after Catra dies for the third time during her nightmare.

  
Catra’s breathing is uneven as she whimpers right next to her. “Scorpia…”

  
She wakes up a few minutes later gasping for air, her hand flying to feel her neck. Catra turns to Adora noticing she’s awake too. “We need to get out of here. I can’t stay here.”

  
Adora makes up the bed while Catra writes a note to leave for Scorpia’s moms.

  
“I’m driving.”

  
Adora’s too tired to argue. “Fine. But only if you let me take you to the doctor in the morning.”

Catra drives them up to a lookout point in a wooded area they used to visit all the time as kids. 

  
She wonders if she could still find their names carved into one of the trees. “You still come here a lot?”

“Yeah. One of the only places I could go to get away from Hordak and his minions.”

  
They’re both silent for a moment, staring at the stars through the windshield.

  
“Can I ask you a question?” 

  
Catra reclines the driver’s seat. “Go ahead. I probably won’t be able to sleep anyway.”

  
“Scorpia, were you two…” Adora drifts off, not knowing how to phrase the question in a nonchalant way.

  
Luckily Catra gets what she’s trying to say. “Together? No. But she was always there for me as a friend, even if I could be a complete dick sometimes.”

  
“She knew C’yra?” 

  
“Yeah. Garnet and Opal were friends with her for a long time. I’ve known her since I was a kid but I didn’t really ‘know’ her until my mom died and you left. You’ve probably seen her around at parties or gatherings my mom hosted.”

  
Catra sighs before continuing. “I promised her moms I’d find out what happened to her. I knew I couldn’t promise to find her but that was the next best thing. It’s my fault she’s gone and I know she would’ve done the same - if not more - for me.”

  
Adora’s on the verge of finally being able to go back to sleep when Catra begins to talk to her again. She blinks a few times in an attempt to stay awake and listen.

  
“I never did thank you for saving me earlier so uh, thanks. You didn’t have to get involved.” Catra says quietly.

  
Adora yawns but turns to look at her anyway. “You don’t have to thank me. I know we aren’t on the best terms but I still won’t let anyone hurt you.”

  
Catra turns to look at her too. The corner of her mouth twitches and then curves into a smile. “My hero”, she replies sarcastically. “You can go to sleep now. I’ll watch, hopefully no one comes and tries to kill me for the second time in less than twenty-four hours.”

“Third”, Adora thinks before her eyes close for the rest of the night.

  
It’s about two hours past sunrise when they’re getting ready to leave the lookout point. Catra agreed to let Adora drive since she was taking her to see a doctor.

  
“Y’know we don’t “have” to go to the doctor. Visits are expensive, plus you literally have no idea how many people Hordak has on the inside.”

  
Adora almost forgot about what she did to him. “You think he’ll send someone after me for breaking one of his leg muscles?”

“If he’s not a total idiot, then no.”

  
“But don’t you guys have cameras literally everywhere?” Adora’s heard the rumors about Hordak’s security systems. “Can’t he just edit the footage?”

  
Catra nearly laughs. “Pfft. You think Hordak’s able to do that kinda stuff? Why do you think he has so many people under him? He’s incompetent as hell. The only person who could do anything like that was Entrapta and she’s long gone.” 

  
Adora lets out a sigh of relief. “Good. And I know the doctor so don’t worry about all that stuff. It’s my friend Bow’s brother.”

  
Catra doesn’t respond and Adora realizes something. 

  
“Unless the real reason you don’t wanna go is because you’re nervous.”

  
Catra scoffs out of disbelief. “I am “not” nervous.” 

  
“Whatever you say. Plus, if you don’t get checked out after asphyxiation incidents it could lead to brain damage, despite the fact that you survived and didn’t display any unusual symptoms.”

  
“How and why do you know all this stuff?”

  
“I looked it up while we were at Scorpia’s house. Duh.”

  
“Any problems hearing?”

  
“No.”

  
Bow’s brother, Xavier, examines Catra’s bruised neck. “I’ll be back in a few with your scans.”

  
“We can tell him what happened, you know.” Adora says as he exits the room. 

  
“No, we can’t. I already told you about Hordak and his people and-”

  
“Xavier’s not one of them. He can help you.”

  
“Adora, no. Hordak may be incompetent and won’t press charges against you because of the footage, but that doesn’t mean he won’t send someone after me or you if one of us starts yapping about what he did. Any of that “I won’t kill my own” is complete bullshit. Especially after the Entrapta situation.”

  
“Well what happened with Entrapta?”

  
“Doesn’t matter. He’s helped kill his own before I’m sure he’d do it again.”

  
Adora practically snorts. “How am I supposed to take your word for this when you won’t even tell me what’s going on?”

  
“Does it fucking matter? This isn’t some softball game where we just found out the team we’re playing against is using performance enhancers or something. We’re talking about a huge, corrupted system that our own lives are in the hands of. Your little hero routine isn’t gonna just convince people to shut it down.”

  
Before Adora can respond Xavier enters the room.

  
“Good news, the scans are clear which means you’re free to go. But that doesn’t mean damage can’t still happen. To prevent that, all activities that can cause stress need to be eliminated from the picture. Including driving. Stress can affect your normal breathing patterns and since yours already consists of short breaths, added issues can lead to a lack of oxygen transmitted to the brain. Which leads to passing out, or even brain damage.”

  
Adora smirks. “Looks like you’re stuck with me.”

  
Catra tries her hardest not to roll her eyes.

  
“But don’t worry, you should be back to these activities in no time as long as your neck is healing and your scans are clear next time I see you, which will be sometime next week.” Xavier looks at Adora. “Adora, do you mind if I talk to Catra alone for a moment.”

  
“Not at all.” Adora gets out of her chair and leaves the room.

“Your injuries lineup most with people who have been affected by manual asphyxiation. Is there anything you’d like to tell me?”

  
Catra doesn’t think she’ll ever forget the look on Hordak’s face as she begged for him to stop. If she thinks about it hard enough she can feel his cold hand squeezing even harder as tears sprung in her eyes. 

  
She’d love nothing more than for him to rot. Or simply be gone forever, even if she had to it herself. But Hordak wasn’t your normal shitty parental figure by any means. Putting him in his own jail? It’s not realistic.

  
Catra smiles at him. “No.” She slides off of the examination table. “Thanks for the help though.”

  
Catra climbs into the passenger’s seat of her car. “Are you finally gonna take me home now?”

  
“You know I can’t do that. Not with him there.”

  
Catra puts her feet on the dashboard and sighs. “Well where else can I go then? Scorpia’s moms already have enough on their plate.”

  
Catra’s silent until she realizes what Adora’s thinking. “No. No, I can’t go to Mystacor they expelled me. I’m not allowed on their school grounds.”

Adora groans. “It would’ve been helpful if you told me this earlier but you “insist” on keeping secrets don’t you?”

  
Catra shrugs as she’s not in the mood to argue with her again.

  
It turns out Adora’s idea of sneaking Catra into Mystacor is putting the scarf back around her neck and giving her a pair of sunglasses to wear inside. They make it in unnoticed anyway.

  
Catra looks around Adora’s dorm room as she shuts the door. “This room is annoyingly you.”

  
Adora ignores her and pulls out her phone.

  
“20 missed texts from bow”  
‘7 missed calls from ‘bow’  
15 missed texts from glimmer  
6 missed calls from glimmer

  
“Crap.” Her phone was on silent and she forgot to text them once she made it to Scorpia’s.

  
“What?”

  
“I forgot to text Glimmer and Bow…” She notices the time. “And now I’m late for class, amazing.”

  
Adora sprints to her only class for the day and is surprised when Mrs. Woven doesn’t lecture her like everyone else.

  
She doesn’t pay attention to what she’s saying and part of her feels kinda bad with how easy Mrs. Woven goes on her but literature is the last thing on Adora’s mind right now. 

  
She hasn’t had much time to think about it but somehow, she was able to go back in time. Hopefully she won’t have to use it to bring Catra again since it’s not exactly fun to watch your best friend die but time travel (based on the movies she’s seen) is awesome.

Adora watches as the guy across her aisle drops his pencil case and all of the contents spill out. She exhales and grabs onto the C pendant on her necklace.

The pouch is back in the guys hand, zipper halfway undone. “Kyle, your pencil pouch is open”, she whisper shouts.

  
Kyle looks down and zips it back up. “Thanks.”

  
Adora smiles to herself but reminds herself to focus. Catra. Should she tell Catra about it? She’d been meaning to but she didn’t want to dump something that sounds crazy on her immediately after a near death experience.

Bow and Glimmer? She probably already seems a little off to them today since she hasn’t responded to their texts or answered their calls all night. And then she tries to explain how she can time travel now? Probably not the best idea at the moment.

She decides to tell Catra first. 

Class is dismissed and Adora all but runs to her room. She spots Bow and Glimmer in front of her door as she approaches it.

  
She laughs awkwardly. “Hey guys!”

  
“Adora! Where have you been? You didn’t come back to your room last night-“

  
Glimmer butts in. “And you haven’t responded to our texts or calls.”

  
“Sorry, I had a pretty crazy night with Catra.” 

  
Bow and Glimmer stare at her intensely and she suddenly realizes the implications of what she’d just said.

  
“Not crazy like that, I swear! But I am exhausted and I’m actually feeling a little sick so if you’ll excuse me…” Adora slowly opens her door as little as possible so they don’t notice Catra inside. 

  
She slips through the crack of the door and begins to close it as Bow and Glimmer stare at her through the crack. 

  
“Adora?”

  
“I’ll call you guys later, I promise!” With that she shuts the door and lets her back sink against it, letting out a sigh of relief.

  
“Aw, trouble in paradise?” Catra’s lying upside down on the side of her bed as she flips through Adora’s literature book from the year before. “This is what you were working on junior year? The curriculum must’ve been dumbed down because I could’ve done this in middle school.”

  
Adora feels a wave a nostalgia wash over her at the sight of Catra on her bed. “Well not all of us are literal geniuses like you y‘ know.”

  
“I’m not a genius.” 

  
“You were at the top of our class every year, Catra.”

  
“Well Mrs. Woven definitely didn’t feel that way. No matter what my performance was.” 

  
Mrs. Woven always managed to be in their life somehow. She was never really kind to Catra, always unnecessarily hard on her,

  
Adora lies down next to Catra, mimicking her position. “Well I felt that way.”

  
Catra’s eyes search her face for a moment before she looks away. Something Catra always did when someone was getting “sappy” on her. Adora thinks it’s cute. 

  
“Anyways, there’s something I need to tell you. You’re probably gonna want to sit up for this.”

  
Catra punks herself up as Adora does the same. “What is it? By the sound of your voice it sounds pretty serious.”

  
“It is.”

  
Catra looks at her, urging her to go on.”

  
Adora isn’t sure how to phrase this. “Yesterday at Hordak’s, I didn’t save you.”

  
“Adora I literally saw you hit him with my softball bat.”

  
“Let me rephrase this. In another timeline, I didn’t save you.”

  
Catra squints. “What do you mean another timeline…”

  
“Catra, you died. I watched you fall from Hordak’s grasp as he let go of you and you weren’t moving. But I grabbed onto this,” she pulls the C pendant out from under her baseball tee. “And I was back in your room like nothing even happened.”

  
“Hm. My mom did tell me that the jeweler she got the necklaces from claimed magic is prevalent in Etheria.”

  
“Wait. So you believe me?” 

  
“First, you have to prove it. I’m gonna say something, and I want you to go back and time and tell me exactly what I was gonna say. Got it?”

  
“Yeah, sure.” Adora listens to what Catra says closely before grabbing the C pendant and thinking back to what she initially asked.

  
“...Got it?” 

  
“Yeah.”

  
Catra folds her arms and smiles smugly. “So, what did I say?”

  
“You sang the entire Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious song from Mary Poppins.” Catra’s mom took them to a theatre downtown to see it when they were seven and Catra was obsessed with it for months.

  
“And?”

  
“And you intentionally skipped a verse about three fourths through the song to make it specific.” 

  
Catra’s eyes widen. “Woah.” 

  
“I know.”

  
“We’re definitely gonna have to play around with that sometime.” 

  
Adora has to stop herself from smiling because that means that Catra isn’t opposed to being around her anymore. 

  
“Okay, my turn.”

  
“For what?” Adora questions. 

  
“To tell you something. I just… I just wanna explain why I’m so cautious with anything Hordak related.”

  
“Okay. But just so you know, don’t feel obligated to tell me.”

  
“The night Scorpia went missing started off pretty nice actually. It was the four year anniversary of my mom’s death and she took me to her gravestone. Then she took me to see this really funny movie. I cried, but it was out of laughter of course. We go back to my place and Scorpia’s helping me make fruit punch, when I overhear Hordak talking about my mom. He talked about someone being sent after her. That’s all I heard before he left to go to his office at Mystacor for the evening. So I go to his office in the basement of my house and ask Entrapta for the passcode to his computer, since they’d been pretty close recently. I go back to the day of my mom’s death in his emails, and he’s talking to his dad. Normal right?”

  
Catra shakes her head and Adora notices the tears in her eyes,

  
“Nope. Because the only reason my mom left was to meet Hordak at the hospital downtown because their dad died. But he wasn’t dead. He purposefully said that because he knew she’d drive out there to support him. Even support their dad despite the damage he caused in the family.”

  
Tears sting Adora’s eyes as well. “If he wasn’t dead, and Hordak knew he wasn’t dead then…” She can’t bring herself to continue.

Catra’s staring straight ahead at the wall in front of them, her hands gripping the sheets on her bed. Adora can’t bring herself to care.

  
Catra continues. “She was set up. Her death wasn’t an accident.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! I’m really liking writing this tbh. feedback is always appreciated <3
> 
> come yell at me abt she-ra  
> tumblr: catrasbastard  
> twitter: catrazulas


	3. chapter three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> tw// graphic violence, blood

Adora couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Catra’s mom…

  
“Catra… I am so sorry.”

  
“So am I.”

  
“She didn’t deserve that, no one deserves that.” C’yra was like a second mom to Adora. Catra was the only child and her dad was never in the picture so it was always just Catra and her mom. But at one point it was Catra, Adora, and C’yra because she spent so much of her time with Catra. 

  
Catra doesn’t respond. Instead she turns the other way, closing herself off.

  
This had to be a tough subject. She knows it’s probably best to give Catra some space.

  
“You must be starving. Um, I’ll go to the cafe downstairs and get some food.” Adora takes one last look at Catra before leaving. 

  
Adora grabs a carton of milk and crackers for Catra. People would side eye her if she brought an entire meal up to her room. Plus the custodians are picky about where students eat. Surprisingly there’s a lot of messy seniors. 

  
She ends up going back to the line to address her own rumbling stomach. Watching her best friend die and then come back to life while finding out that she has time travelling abilities must’ve made her forget about her appetite. She gets two sub sandwiches along with a bag of potato chips and a large soda.

Glimmer and Bow will be headed to the cafe soon as well since the three of them go at the same time everyday. And if they find out that she ate not only without them, but alone while she’s supposedly ‘sick’ it’d raise even more concern leading to them asking questions.

  
And although Adora loves them both dearly, they could be very nosy. Especially Glimmer.

Adora’s in the middle of her second sandwich when a girl named Octavia approaches her table.

  
“Anyone sitting here?”

  
Adora shakes her head. Her eyes follow the scar right above Octavia’s eye as she sits down. She remembers the day that it happened almost vividly. 

  
Back in elementary school Octavia and a few of her friends followed her and Catra over the fence during recess. Catra was gathering pine cones for a game they were playing when they came over to her and started making fun of her. Usually the other kids didn’t pick on Adora and resorted to teasing Catra as Mrs. Woven was never her biggest fan. But Octavia didn’t like either of them for some reason.

  
They made fun of her for still having teeth missing and how big her forehead was and claimed her ponytail was stupid. She tried to run over to where Catra was but one of Octavia’s friends grabbed her by her ponytail and started tugging at it.

  
Octavia was taunting her and claiming she was being a crybaby when she noticed Catra sneaking through the trees behind them. She made eye contact with Adora, putting her index finger up to her lips just like she did when they were in her bedroom yesterday. 

  
Before she knew it, Catra is hanging on a tree branch behind them like a bat. Octavia turned around and Catra tells her to leave Adora alone, swinging off of the branch and swiping at Octavia’s face.

  
Catra wasn’t allowed at school for the next few days. When she got back she told Adora that all her mom told her to do was to “not scratch so hard next time.”

  
“So, where are your friends?” Octavia asks her, snapping Adora out of the memory from years ago.

  
“Um, they’re busy so I just decided to eat alone today.”

  
Octavia nods and Adora takes a large chunk out of her sub and decides to throw the rest away. “I gotta go. Lots of uh, homework to do!” Adora laughs nervously.

She nearly sprints out of the cafeteria and back to her dorm.

  
“Why are you panting?” Catra’s lying down flat on her back on Adora’s bed. 

  
“I was trying to make sure Octavia wouldn’t follow me or ask anymore questions.” Octavia still freaks her out. She also still sends her dirty looks anytime they’re within the same vicinity of each other.

  
Catra sits up. “Octavia? She still hangs around here? She graduated in my freshman year here.” 

  
“She’s training to be a teacher. Anyway, I brought food.” Adora walks towards the bed and hands Catra the milk and crackers. 

  
Catra raises an eyebrow. “Milk and crackers? What am I, a five year old?”

  
“It’d be suspicious if I bought another meal.”

  
Catra takes the food. 

  
Adora climbs into her bed and sits next to Catra. “You okay?”

  
“Yep. And you don’t have to worry about hiding me in your dorm anymore, Hordak’s gonna be on a business trip for a few days. He should’ve left about an hour ago. He should be too tired to want to choke the shit out of me by the time that’s over.”

  
“Catra.”

  
“What? I can even show you where his work convention is if you want. Plus, I have another way we can test your powers.”

Adora tries to be discreet as her and Catra hurry towards the school’s exit. Catra’s wearing the sunglasses and scarf again as well. She notices Octavia squint at Catra as they walk out the doors and she walks back in. 

  
__________________________________________________________

“And,” Catra blends one last spot on her neck. “Done.” She turns around to face Adora, who’s leaning against her bathroom door. “How do I look?”

  
“Great! Like nothing ever even happened.” Catra’s neck looks like the bruises were never even there. 

  
“Thanks, that’s what I was going for.”

  
“You’re like, really good at that.”

  
Catra’s eyes fall from her reflection in the mirror. “Well, you could say I’ve had practice.” She laughs with and edge to her voice.

  
Adora’s eyes widen. “Wait, what? Are you saying that…” Adora drifts off.

Catra’s silent.

“Catra, you can't just say things like that and not explain!”

  
“Well what is there to explain really. He was disappointed in me as usual and that’s how he decided to take his anger out. Same as yesterday really except-“

  
Adora cuts her off. “Deadlier?”

Catra shrugs. “It’s whatever at this point. Nothing either one of us can do about it. But we can go destroy our eardrums at the Paramore concert downtown tonight.” 

  
Adora reluctantly drops the previous topic. “That was your plan of testing my power?”

“Uh yeah. They sold out while I was asleep one morning a few months ago, why not use this to our advantage.”

  
“I don’t know, Catra…”

  
“C’mon, Adora! I already have it all planned out. Lonnie’s going and she has tickets for a secluded area towards the front. We steal em, plain and simple.” 

  
Catra’s definitely no stranger to trouble and honestly, neither is Adora. Growing up, Catra had Adora’s back so Adora had hers in return. But this is much more serious than pulling a prank on a kid that was being mean to one of them and ending up in detention for it. If Adora can’t pull this off it could land them both into legal trouble.

“Lonnie? She’s our friend.”

Catra scoffs. “Please. She was your friend, not mine. She acted like a total bitch towards me right up until the day I was kicked out of that hellhole.” 

  
“I’m sorry but I still don’t know I-”

  
“Why am I even arguing, you would’ve done this for your Eternian friends in a heartbeat. Forget it.” Catra begins to storm out of the bathroom but Adora grabs her wrist to stop her.

  
“I wouldn’t. Catra you’re my best friend, my first friend even. I just don’t exactly know what my limits are yet and I don’t wanna push them. But how about this, we go to the stadium, I find and talk to Lonnie, then I try a simple rewind and if that doesn’t work I take you somewhere to make it up to you. If it does work, I’ll take the ticket and give it to you then I’ll rewind again and sneak in. Sound good?” Adora explains.

  
A small smile works its way onto Catra’s face and Adora’s grip drops from her wrist. She turns around and leans against the counter. “I guess you’re not totally lame.”

  
“Plus it’s about time we actually hang out without near death situations or running around town. Don’t you think?” 

  
Catra’s smile is now full blown. “Maybe. But if we’re going to a Paramore concert we’ve gotta get you out of that horrid outfit.” Catra takes Adora’s hand and pulls her back into her room.

  
“Y’know, I don’t get why I can’t just wear my normal outfit.” Adora’s sitting down topless on Catra’s bed as she searches her closet for another shirt.

  
“Because it’s boring, duh.”

  
Catra’s wearing a white tube top with black skinny jeans and she’s also picked out a black leather jacket to top it all off.

  
She walks over to Adora with a black and white striped long sleeved shirt and a solid black short sleeved one to go over it. “Here.”

  
Catra stares at the floor to avoid looking at Adora while she dresses. 

  
Adora walks over to Catra’s full length mirror. “Woah, I don’t even recognize myself.” 

  
Catra walks up to her and studies her look. “Hmm.” She suddenly pulls out Adora’s hair tie and starts carding her hands through her hair.

  
Adora shivers.

  
Catra puts about one fourth of it back into a ponytail so that it’s like a half up half down style but with less hair up. “There. Don’t worry, you can go back to your stupid athletic tees and sweatshirts after the concert.”

  
They run through the plan one more time before Adora goes to find Lonnie. Luckily for her she’s near the end of the ticket checking line.

  
Adora takes a deep breath. “Lonnie? Is that you?” 

  
Lonnie looks around for a moment before noticing Adora behind her. “Adora? Oh my god! How are you?”

  
“I’m pretty good, you?”

  
“I’m good too! It’s been way too long. I didn’t know you listened to Paramore.”

  
“A friend suggested them and I haven’t been able to stop listening since.”

  
Lonnie nods as if she’s approving of her. “When’d you move back here? I remember you left a few years ago right after C’yra Chamanara passed. God, her death really ended up shaking the community.”

  
“I got a scholarship to Mystacor earlier this year. I transferred at the beginning of the semester.”

  
“Mystacor huh? I actually attend there, haven’t seen you around though.”

  
Adora scratches the back of her neck. “It’s a big school.”

  
“Sure is. Speaking of Mystacor and the Chamanara’s, have you talked to Catra since you got back? I know she was expelled at some point but I remember you two being close before you moved.”

  
“Yeah! I’m here with her actually.”

  
Lonnie smiles but it doesn’t seem all that real. “That’s cool.” She fiddles with the ticket in her back pocket.

  
Maybe Catra was right. She decides to try a rewind.

  
Ador grabs the pendant and it’s much quicker this time.

  
“Speaking of Mystacor and the Chamanara’s, have you talked to Catra since you got back? I know she was expelled at some point but I remember you two being close before you moved.”

  
“No I haven’t actually. We grew apart after I moved. I guess our friendship just wasn’t a good fit anymore.”

  
“I completely understand. I wasn’t her biggest fan when we were kids but after C’yra passed she was just ten times worse.”

  
Adora thinks back to when they were young teenagers. When Catra transferred to Mystacor she’d often home not looking the best. Adora would wait for her and on several occasions her uniform would be trashed or her belongings basically vandalized. She’d say it was a joke between her, Lonnie, and Rogelio but Adora doesn’t think that’s the case anymore.

  
Lonnie continues. “I honestly understood why Mrs. Woven hated her so much after that. And I remember one kid saying that the wrong Chamanara died once and I couldn’t blame them. She was awful.”

  
Adora has to refrain herself from balling up her fists. How could Lonnie treat Catra so poorly and then expect kindness in return? How could Lonnie treat Catra poorly in the first place? 

  
She steps towards Lonnie’s backside and swiftly snatches the concert ticket out of her pocket. Adora immediately grips onto the pendant and thinks about before she even called out Lonnie and there she is. 

  
Lonnie’s standing there, no clue Adora’s there or that she’s missing her ticket.

  
She almost skips to the side of the stadium where Catra is. 

  
She flicks the ticket upwards. “Boom!”

  
“Holy shit!”

  
Adora leans against the wall smugly.

  
“I can’t believe you did it!” Catra takes the ticket from her. “Anybody ever told you you’re fucking awesome?”

  
“No, but I could get used to it.” 

  
Catra shoves her and Adora laughs. “Now come on, we’ve got a concert to attend.” 

  
Catra’s up and dancing at the start of their very first song. Adora hasn’t seen her this happy since the day her mom passed. Even on the few occasions they talked Catra didn’t seem like herself which was understandable of course. But Adora still missed her.

  
But watching Catra play an air guitar and jump up and down to Hayley Williams belting a song from years ago reminds her of when they were fourteen and hardly had a single care in the world. It’s like that side of Catra was never forced out of her and like Adora never left.

  
Catra turns to her, still smiling. “Are you gonna stare all night long or dance with me?”

  
They’re able to dance through a few songs and Adora feels like she’s on top of the world. 

  
Until someone enters the secluded area. “Catra.” 

  
Catra turns to her side and Adora does the same. Almost immediately there’s blood spilling from her neck into a pool on the floor. Catra stumbles to the ground.

  
Adora gasps and looks at the figure standing behind Catra’s body. “Octavia.”

  
Octavia shakes her head. “No magical spirits huh. It’s too bad that both you and your mother were lost just for nothing to be found.”

  
Catra’s mom… 

  
Octavia steps over Catra’s body but doesn’t bother avoiding the blood. She carelessly steps in it like Catra’s just something in her way. “Now it’s time to find out why Woven favors you so much.” 

  
Adora grabs the pendant before Octavia can step any closer. She thinks to the start of the second song performed, Careful. Catra deserves to see a full song performed by them at least. 

  
“Are you gonna stare all night long or dance with me?”

  
“Neither. We have to get out of here, now.”

  
Catra’s smile falters and Adora feels her heart shatter into two. “What do you mean?”

  
“Catra, something happened. I went back, and I’m here now but if we don’t go now you’re gonna die, then I’m gonna die, and if I die, neither of us can come back.”

  
Catra’s eyes scan over each part of her face as if she’s looking for something. “Fine.”

Adora takes her hand and they rush out of the exit opposite of where Octavia was standing. They don’t stop running until they reach Catra’s car.

  
Catra doesn’t say anything until they’re a few minutes out on the road. “What the hell was that?”

  
“Octavia followed us here somehow. She entered the area and then she killed you. Then she was gonna kill me.”

  
“Jeez I knew something was up with her but I would’ve never guessed that.”

  
Adora doesn’t respond. She stares at the road blankly trying (and failing) not to think about what Octavia said. 

  
Catra looks at her. “Are you okay?” 

  
Adora sighs. “You know the whole magic is prevalent in Etheria thing?”

  
“Yeah, I’m the one who told you about it.”

  
“Well, according to Octavia, that’s why your mother was targeted. Someone must’ve thought that she harbored some within her or something but whoever thought so was wrong. And she tried to kill you for the same reason.”

  
Catra slowly blinks. “How would she of all people even know this?”

  
Adora sighs. “I don’t know but it kinda makes sense. It would explain why she knew where to find us like they found your mom. And you looked into Hordak’s computer and saw those messages and figured out your mom was set up. If everyone thinks it was a car accident, why would Octavia imply that whatever happened was on purpose?”

  
Catra’s silent before she begins to laugh hysterically. 

  
“Catra-“

  
“Just don’t. There’s nothing to say.”

__________________________________________________________

  
Adora knows that there are much more important issues than her relationship with Catra right now but she was finally feeling like they could actually be friends again. And just when she was finally learning how to, something happened. 

  
She wants to see Catra smile the way she did before any of this happened. She didn’t expect to get into this when she walked onto Catra’s porch again for the first time in years. But she’d be damned if she backed out now.

  
They’re both in Catra’s bed, Catra’s back to her. Neither one of them are asleep. 

  
Catra peels the blanket off of herself and climbs out of bed.

  
Adora looks at her.

  
“Bathroom.”

  
“Catra?”

  
Catra’s back is to her again. “Yeah?”

  
“You can talk to me, you know that right?”

  
Catra looks over her shoulder and slightly nods before leaving the room. 

  
Adora quickly sits up. She looks around Catra’s room before getting out of bed and walking over to her desk. She opens and closes a few doors that don’t have much in them before getting to one with a bunch of papers in it. She looks through several before pulling out an old sheet of notebook paper. 

  
The note Adora left the day of the funeral. Right before she left for good.

  
She sits back on the bed and hunches over to skim through what she wrote. Her hand finds its way to her necklace

  
She thinks to two weeks before she wrote the note. The day C’yra passed. Adora shuts her eyes and prays it works.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope you all enjoyed this chapter and i’m very excited to post the next. it shouldn’t be long since i’m gonna be coupled up in the house for a little while. feedback is appreciated!


	4. chapter four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> adora goes through timelines to find one where c'yra is alive for catra.

“Hey Adora, what should I draw on Mrs. Woven? Do you think a simple silly face would work or should I go all out and add devil horns?”

Catra’s lying down flat on her stomach, swinging her legs back and forth. There’s a red sharpie in her hand and her yearbook is right in front of her. Her hair is long and wild like it used to be, a scrunchie is keeping her bangs out of her face as well.

Adora looks down at her own body and she’s a lot smaller. 

They’re fourteen again. She successfully went back to the day C’yra died.

“Hello? Earth to Adora…”

Adora’s head snaps up almost immediately. “What was the question again?”

Catra sighs. “You know what? I think I’m just gonna do what my gut tells me to do and add devil horns. It’s what she deserves.” Catra scribbles large devil horns onto Mrs. Woven’s pictures before putting the cap on the sharpie and shutting her yearbook. She sits up and scoots back to sit next to Adora against the headboard of her bed. 

“You’ve been spacing out a lot lately.” Catra pauses and smirks. “More than usual.”

Adora gulps. She knows exactly why she was acting weird. “It’s nothing.”

Catra leans closer to Adora and she leans back. “You sure? You know if you hit that big forehead of yours on something you can always tell me, right? I won’t judge.”

Adora elbows Catra’s side. “Shut up.”

Catra giggles and Adora tries and fails to hold back her own laughter. “But seriously, is everything okay? It’s not about me changing schools or anything right?”

“Of course not. I already know that you’re gonna miss me more than anyone and anything else.”

Catra scoffs. “Please, more like it’s the other way around.”

“Come on Catra, don’t you think it’s time you admit it already?”

Catra’s eyes widen. “Admit what?”

“That you like me. Duh.”

“Oh that’s it!” Catra tackles her and causes Adora to roll to the edge of the bed.

Adora laughs even harder, clutching at her sides. “Stop, I’m gonna fall off of the bed!”

Catra stops laughing and shoves her.

Adora hits the ground with a thump. “Ow...my head.”

Catra leans over the bed. “You okay? Shit, if that caused any damage to your head my mom will literally kill me. She already said that we’re too old to rough house around the house.” 

Adora feigns a pained groan. “Just grab my hand.”

Catra leans even further to meet Adora’s hand and before she can react Adora yanks her arm causing her to fall off of the bed too. 

Catra lands right on top of her and Adora bursts into another fit of laughter.

Catra lifts herself off of Adora’s torso and playfully glares at her. “I hate you.”

Adora grins. “I know.”

“Catra! Adora!”

Adora can’t believe her ears. She still hasn’t fully grasped the idea that she successfully traveled this far back in time. Hearing C’yra’s voice again so clearly feels like a lucid dream.

Catra grins. “Time for pizza.”

Everytime Adora spent the night over Catra’s (which was a lot) they’d make pizzas together. At first Catra’s mom would just order one but Catra insisted on making one after watching a random episode of something on the food network channel. C’yra was hesitant at first given the fact that just a mere few weeks before Catra and Adora caused a fire in the microwave, but Catra sweet talked her way into it by saying her mom could watch them and that it would make for good mother daughter bonding time.

Adora tries to recall the day’s original events as she follows Catra downstairs.

They never got to making the pizza because of the message C’yra got from Hordak. She ended up telling Catra about the situation and left.

In order to prevent her from leaving Adora needs to find her phone and block Hordak’s contact so she doesn’t get the message about her dad. Which was a lie anyway.

“You girls ready?” C’yra asks. Adora studies her for a bit. It had been a while. 

Her eyes are still kind as ever, Adora thinks. Nothing like Hordak’s. His are empty as ever. She still can’t believe they’re related.

Adora thinks about present day Catra. She really has become a spitting image of her mom. C’yra’s hair stops right at the tip of her shoulders, cut jaggedly, a little uneven. Like Catra’s. Light freckles are scattered underneath her eyes and around her nose.

“Adora...Adora!” Catra waves a hand in her face and she nearly jumps.

“Huh? Oh! Yeah I’m ready but I’m gonna go use the bathroom.”

Catra rolls her eyes. “Hurry up dude, the pizza’s not gonna make itself.”

“I’ll be back in a sec! I promise.” Adora heads towards the direction of the bathroom but makes a sharp turn to the basement door. She skips a step as she walks down, remembering what Catra once said about how to prevent the stairs from creaking.

The floor is covered in tape markings, paint buckets are against the wall, and other supplies are out.

C’yra was planning to turn the basement’s main room into a hangout for her and Catra. Adora didn’t understand why she’d go through all of the work when any room in the house would work since it was just the two of them but she gets it now. C’yra wanted to make something special for them to share. Adora would do the same.

She wonders what it looks like now.

Adora enters C’yra’s office. She remembers C’yra only working down here when she had to. Usually she’d have a laptop at the kitchen table to keep an eye out for her and Catra, especially when they were younger. 

She quickly scans the area. No phone. She doesn’t remember seeing it downstairs either. Adora begins to leave when she hears a box being opened. She takes a peek, all of her body hidden besides her eyes by the wall connected to the office’s door.

It’s C’yra, kneeling down, coughing, and rummaging through medicine bottles. Adora gasps without thinking and clamps her hand over her mouth. C’yra immediately turns her head and Adora puts her head against the wall.

“Catra? Did you follow me down here?”

Adora sighs and steps out of the room. “No. It’s me.” She wrings her hands behind her back like a kid that got caught stealing candy.

Her eyebrows furrow. “Adora? I thought you were upstairs.

“I was. But then I came down here to look for my jacket. I think I left it here last time Catra and I were playing on your computer.” Adora crosses her fingers, hoping her excuse is believable. C’yra did let them play on her computer a lot. 

C’yra’s silent for a moment. 

This didn’t happen four years ago. “The medicine...Miss C’yra, are you okay?”

She avoids Adora’s eyes.

It didn’t make sense. Adora knows this house (or at least she did before Hordak moved in) like the back of her hand. Medicine has always been kept in the cupboards in the kitchen. And C’yra was fine. Adora remembers her being almost perfectly healthy. She made it a habit to eat healthy almost everyday, she went to the neighbourhood gym in the morning on the weekends Catra spent at her house. The only thing she could think of that proved otherwise was that-

Oh. 

“...Does Catra know?” Adora asks.

C’yra runs a hand through her hair. “No.”

“Well are you gonna tell her?” Maybe it didn’t matter because she knows that C’yra passes later but she could feel herself getting angrier by the second. Did she plan on telling Catra or was she just gonna wait until she couldn’t hide it anymore. And this was just another bomb she had to drop on Catra.

The real fourteen year old Adora might’ve left the situation alone powers, or not. But now? She couldn’t if she tried. She’s made it this far and wants to know the truth. 

“Of course I am. I didn’t mean for you to find out this way, Adora. You’re just a kid and I can’t expect you to keep this from her. I was trying to find the right time to tell her and with you all just graduating and you telling her you’re moving...”

Adora cringes. How ironic.

C’yra pauses. “I‘ll tell her when you go home. You don’t have to be concerned.”

Adora nods. 

“You still have to find your jacket don’t you? Great, now I’m wasting time. You go ahead and keep looking. I'm gonna go upstairs. Catra’s probably tired of waiting and I don’t blame her.”

Adora’s eyes linger on C’yra’s figure. Her stomach is in knots. “Yeah.” She forces a small smile.

She puts a small bottle in her back pocket and walks past Adora to reach the stairs. But she suddenly stops and turns back around. “And Adora?”

“Yes?”

“It’s in the early stages. Don’t worry about me.” C’yra smiles and for a second Adora feels like everything will be okay.

“I won’t.”

Not for that reason anyway.

C’yra begins to make her way up the stairs and Adora spots something beside the box.

It’s C’yra’s phone, she forgot it.

Perfect, she thinks. Now all she has to do is figure out the passcode and block Hordak.

Adora tries a few simple combinations and the year C’yra was born as well as her birthday before trying Catra’s birthday.

The phone unlocks and reveals a picture of Catra in elementary school holding an honor roll award, her smile wide as can be. Adora smiles before opening the messaging app.

There aren’t very many people besides Scorpia’s moms as well her own mom and co-workers that she’s had recent conversations with. She finds Hordak’s contact towards the bottom.

From the looks of it C’yra habitually ignores his texts. Adora’s not surprised though. She remembers Catra mentioning that their relationship is (or was) complicated at one point.

She clicks the contact and the edit option then scrolls down to ‘block contact’. When it asks for another confirmation she clicks yes without hesitation. 

Adora shuts C’yra’s phone off and laughs.

She actually managed to save C’yra and prevent everything that happened to Catra. Now she just has to wait. She decides to go back to the first floor for the time being.

  
  


“Look who it is! Only took you fifty years. I'm surprised I’m not dead yet. Are you finally ready to-”

She ignores Catra’s slew of sarcastic remarks and throws herself into her arms. She sees C’yra gathering more ingredients behind them in the kitchen and smiles softly.

“Okay, Adora I am officially declaring you as insane. I mean seriously, did you fall in the shower this morning or something, what's up with you?” Catra chuckles.

Tears spring in her eyes. “Nothing! Everything is just so good! And we’re awesome! You know that right? You know that you’re like, the best person ever right?”

“Obviously.” Catra says in a fake smug voice.

Adora pulls away and smiles at Catra. “This is gonna be so much fun.”

Catra raises an eyebrow but smiles back. “Adora, I have absolutely no idea what you’re smoking-”

“Hey.” C’yra interrupts as a warning.

Catra rolls her eyes. “Fine, I have no idea what’s been in your coffee or whatever lately but...you’re the best friend ever too.”

Adora smiles even wider- which she thought was impossible at this point- and she secretly hopes that the time jump will hurry up and happen so she doesn’t turn into a sobbing mess in front of Catra.

But Catra doesn’t question her again, instead she hugs her and caresses her back.

Adora does the same and closes her eyes.

___________________________________________________________

“What do you think, Adora?”

She blinks a few times and notices she’s in Glimmer’s room, Glimmer and Bow sitting beside her.

Adora stares at him blankly.

“...For what movie to watch?” Bow asks.

“Oh! Um, you guys can pick I don’t mind. And Glimmer?”

“Hm?” Glimmer answers, not taking her eyes off of the Netflix screen.

“Can I borrow your car?”

Adora sits through the entirety of The Roommate- which was god awful- even though she can hardly sit still.

The sun is about an hour away from setting when she leaves the campus and Catra’s house isn’t very far away so she doesn’t have time to figure out what to say. But maybe she’ll be less harsh since her mom didn’t die in this reality. Maybe.

Adora walks up the few steps to Catras’s porch after she arrives.

We meet again, she thought.

She plays with the pendant around her neck for a moment before ringing the doorbell. 

A few seconds later Catra begins to unlock the door. “Sorry sir, but I’ve already said we’re not-” She stops mid sentence once she recognizes Adora’s face.

Adora smiles sheepishly.

“Adora? What- What’re you doing here?”

“Catra? Who is it?” C’yra asks from inside.

“It’s Adora, actually.” Catra calls out and laughs out of disbelief.

Adora hears whirring coming from inside.

“It is? Invite her in!”

Catra opens the door and a woman in a motorized wheelchair comes towards her as she enters. For a split second she wonders who it is.

When she realizes it, Adora clamps a hand over her mouth.

“What, do I look old or something? Be honest.” C’yra says.

Fuck.

Adora shakes her head and slowly moves her hand away from her mouth. “No, no you look amazing.” Adora bends over to hug her and C’yra slowly wraps her arms around her.

Adora lets go of C’yra and smiles at her. She looks at Catra who’s awkwardly leaning against the wall, staring at her nails.

Catra looks up and her eyes go from Adora to her mom. “What?” Adora begins to walk towards her and she lifts an eyebrow. “You don’t have to-”

Adora throws her arms around Catra anyway. 

C’yra chuckles. “Still not a hugger.”

Adora pulls away and her hand lingers on Catra’s shoulder before she slowly drags it along her arm. “Some things never change.”

“So, what brings you back here, Adora?” C’yra asks.

Adora clears her throat. “I actually got a scholarship for the Mystacor school. I moved back here at the start of the semester.”

“So you’ve been here for two months.” Catra says blankly. She’s staring dead at her.

“Uh, yeah.”

“Why didn’t you visit sooner? We would’ve loved to see you.”

“It was a...hard transition back. There’s been lots of work and I’ve been really busy.”

She notices Catra rolling her eyes out of the corner of her own.

“Why don’t you two go do something fun? I’ve been saying Catra needs to go out more. This is one of the best times of you guys’ lives.”

“Then who’s gonna take care of you?” 

“That isn’t for you to worry about. Now go! Go have fun.” C’yra basically shoos them away.

Catra sighs. “I’ll get the keys.”

Catra runs a hand through her hair after starting the car. It’s long and stops at her waist. “I don’t even know where to take you to be honest. There’s nothing to do in this shit town. Nothing’s changed.”

She thinks for a moment. “The fair’s open.”

“It is?”

“Yeah! You didn’t know?”

“No, actually. I haven’t been in years. Hasn’t crossed my mind.”

“Then we have to go! I’m taking you on every ride we couldn’t ride as kids, and we’re gonna eat every item of food they have to offer.”

A small smile appears on Catra’s face. “You’re insane.”

Adora simply shrugs in response and thinks about how different Catra is in this reality. She can’t read her like she could before which is understandable but it’s like there’s a shell of the person she used to know beside her. Maybe C’yra somehow being paralyzed from the waist down has something to do with it.

  
  


They mostly drive in silence. Catra switches the radio station a few times but doesn’t say a word.

“...Catra?”

“Hm?” 

Adora lets out a breath she didn’t even know she was holding in. “I’m sorry.”

“For…”

She really is different. This Catra seems kind of annoyed with her showing up out of nowhere but that’s it. The Catra in her timeline closed the door in her face and was angry all the time but Adora still knew it was her. If she saw the woman next to her on the street, she thinks she wouldn’t even notice her.

“For leaving, for everything really.”

“I know.”

“And-” Adora frowns as Catra cuts her off.

“I don’t want your pity either. You don’t need to explain how sorry you are about my mom, or me. Keep it to yourself.”

“I wasn’t gonna say that.”

“Then what were you gonna say? Were you gonna express how much you miss us being friends? Because I don’t really wanna hear that either.”

What she says stings but it’s nice to know Catra isn’t completely different, she thinks. “Maybe you would know what I said if you let me talk instead of assuming things.” 

Catra’s grip on the wheel tightens. “Nobody’s stopping you, Princess.”

“First, I wanna say I didn’t come out of pity or guilt, I just wanted to see you. And I know I wasn’t the best friend a few years ago but, I truly want to try again. Us growing apart is my biggest regret.”

Catra sighs. “I guess I’ll think about it.”

For Catra, that’s a yes. Adora knows it’s a mix between her liking to keep people on their toes, and not wanting to reveal how she truly feels so she doesn’t look desperate.

“We’re here.”

  
  
  
“I’m basically an expert on anything fair or amusement park related so we do rides first, then food.” 

Catra nods. “I wouldn’t want you puking all over me anyway.”

Adora lightly nudges Catra’s shoulder with her own. “I only made that rule so that you wouldn’t puke. Not me, I’m the expert. Duh.” 

“Since you’re the expert, let’s see how you do on...that.” Catra points to the tallest ride near the back of the park. 

It’s like Catra could still see right through her. Even in a completely different timeline. She never bothered to ride that one. It brings you 50 feet up and drops you. Which wouldn’t be so bad on a regular rollercoaster, but that’s all the ride does. Several times.

Apparently Glimmer and Bow rode it once and immediately puked afterwards. She doesn’t mention that to Catra though. She already feels herself treading on thin ice for showing up out of nowhere after being the worst best friend someone could have for nearly four years. Adora finally felt like she was kind of moving forward with Catra in her own timeline, even if their few days together were plagued by death and life ruining lies. But she could get used to this timeline as long as Catra is okay in the end.

Adora smirks. “Let’s do it.”

Surprisingly, the line isn’t very long and they're at the front in less than twenty minutes. 

She notices Catra frantically tapping her slightly overgrown acrylics on the metal poles for the line. 

“You’re scared.”

Catra’s eyes widen and then her eyebrows furrow afterwards. “What? No!”

Her voice gets pitchy and squeaks at the end so Adora knows she’s lying. 

“Ugh, fine. Maybe I’m a little scared or whatever but can you blame me? I haven’t been on anything like this in years.”

Adora massages her temple. “And why exactly would you choose this if you're scared?”

“Because I knew you hated rides like this when we were kids, and I thought I could tease you about it while you were calling yourself the ‘amusement park’ expert. Duh.” 

“Of course you would want to do that.”

“In my defense, I didn’t think you’d actually be down to ride it.”

Adora shrugs. “I didn’t think so either. But you can hold my hand if you want.”

Catra rolls her eyes but Adora still sees the smile on her face.

  
Catra ends up holding onto her hand for dear life.

____________________________________________________________

They’re walking around in a comfortable silence. Catra eating small handfuls of a bag of popcorn she bought, Adora taking bites out of pink cotton candy.

There’s a string of games and Adora ignores most of them until she sees a game where one of the prizes is a stuffed unicorn. She puts her arm out in front of Catra to prevent them from passing it.

“Look…”

Catra’s eyes scan the booth until she notices the medium sized stuffed unicorn animal pinned to the top of the wall in the back. She gives Adora a look. “You can’t be serious.”

Adora looks at her as if this is a serious matter. “Well I am. Very.”

Catra hands Adora her bag of popcorn. “Hold this.”

“What’re you-”

A woman with long blue hair nonchalantly hands Catra three darts. She squints, aims for a small balloon and misses. She does the same for a medium sized balloon.

Catra turns to her side and eyes the large balloon in the middle. She brings the back side of the dart to her eye before pulling it away and throwing it. 

The dart actually manages to burst the balloon and Catra smiles. Adora gasps.

“Nice shot.” The woman looks slightly impressed. She grabs a nearly life sized stuffed unicorn. 

“Oh. My. God.” Adora pulls Catra into a hug thanking her repeatedly.

“Don’t make a big deal out of it….”

Catra takes the food away from her when she pulls away so Adora can take the unicorn.

As they begin to continue through the park the woman at the booth speaks again. “You two lovebirds enjoy the rest of your night.”

Adora feels her face heat up. “Oh, um… We’re not-”

“Yeah we’re not together.”

She ignores them, already attending to the next family approaching the booth.

They continue walking and Adora looks at Catra. Catra makes eye contact out of the corner of her eye and bites her lip. Both of them burst into a fit of laughter. 

Their laughter dies down and Catra’s phone rings. She raises an eyebrow as she answers it. 

“Hello?”

Her facial expression changes slowly. “What? I’m on my way now.”

“Hey, what happened?”

“My mom apparently had a stroke. Luckily she texted our neighbour when she started feeling uneasy or else…”

“Catra-”

Catra slaps the palm of her hand against her forehead. “I shouldn’t have left. We have to go see her.”

  
  
  


Catra drives almost recklessly to the hospital. Adora doesn’t say anything about it. She stares out the window, stroking the stuffed unicorn’s head.

It seemed like they were screwed in every universe somehow. 

Catra practically runs to her Mom’s hospital room. A doctor steps out of the room as they reach the door.

“You must be Catra.”

Catra pants. “Yeah. Is she-”

“She’ll be okay. The paramedics got there just in time. You two can go visit if you want. She’s on medication but she’s awake.”

Catra pauses. “When did this happen?”

“A couple of hours ago. I’ll be back in a few.” The doctor smiles at them both and walks the other way.

Catra opens the door, Adora following. 

C’yra smiles weakly. “Hello girls.”

“Hey Miss C’yra. You doing okay?”

She laughs but a cough quickly follows it. “I’m making it.”

Catra shakes her head. “Mom, why didn’t you call me?”

“I didn’t think it would get that bad. I wanted to make sure you had a fun night.” C’yra coughs again.

“I don’t give a shit about having a fun night. I would like to know if my own mother is okay though.”

“Catra.” C’yra gives her a look. Adora recognizes it from when they were children.

“No. You don’t get to ‘Catra’ me. You’re already paralyzed from the waist down, and your condition has constantly worsened. Literally everything with your health needs to be taken seriously.” 

“But not by you.”

Adora feels out of place. She looks at the floor.

“Mom-”

“No Catra. I’ve been saying it for nearly four years. You shouldn’t be the one taking care of me.”

“I won’t let you get a caretaker.” Catra sniffles. Adora wants to comfort her.

“Just because I’m wasting away doesn’t mean you need to as well.” C’yra sighs before continuing. “Adora, could you give us some space?”

“Sure.” Adora turns to open the door and gently shuts it behind her. 

She sits in a chair outside of the room. Something had to go wrong in her jump from a few years ago. She blocked Hordak’s number meaning there was no reason for C’yra to leave, and no way for Horde industries to easily track her. She has to figure this out. For Catra.

A few minutes later Catra leaves the room. Eyes red and bloodshot from crying. She sits next to Adora on the bench.

“She wants a caretaker.”

Adora turns her head, Catra stares straight ahead.

“It may not look like it, but her condition is bad. The accident worsened her respiratory system. She may have years left but soon she’ll be bedridden. I don’t want some rando taking of her. And what if she does pass? I’ll get a call from some person I don’t know at all and they’ll be the one with the memories of her last days.”

The accident… “What was wrong with her respiratory system in the first place?” Adora already knows. She just needs details on this ‘accident’ in order to prevent it.

Catra exhales. “Fuck. I never told you did I? She was sick before. I found out in the hospital though she knew weeks before. You left right after the accident though so there wasn’t much time to explain.”

“You could’ve texted me.” Adora adds.

“I didn’t want your pity. You couldn’t even text me as I was your best friend. I didn’t want you to stick around just because you felt bad.”

Adora licks her lips. “How did this accident...happen?”

Catra turns her head and squints at her. “Adora, you were literally there with me. Do you not remember?”

Adora doesn’t say anything.

“She went out to get those stupid toppings for our pizza from Kroger and got into a bad car accident.”

The pizza toppings…”Right. Sorry.”

Catra wipes her eye with the back of her hand. “You should go. I’ll send you some money so you can get your car from my house. She has to stay the night.”

“Okay.” Adora wipes her hands on her jeans and stands up. She takes one last look at Catra before walking towards the exit.

Once she’s outside of the front doors she grabs the pendant and closes her eyes.

“Let’s try this one more time.”

____________________________________________________________

When Adora opens her eyes she’s back in Catra’s basement, C’yra’s phone in her hand, opened to Hordak’s contact.

She makes sure it’s still blocked before going upstairs.

  
  
“Look who it is! Only took you fifty years. I'm surprised I’m not dead yet. Are you finally ready to make the pizza?”

“Yeah!” Adora passes the couch and enters the kitchen to find C’yra. She’s standing in front of an open fridge, scratching her chin. “Were you still gonna go to Kroger for toppings?”

“I think so. We’re seriously lacking pepperoni. You two think you could-”

“Don’t!”

C’yra looks at her. “Why not?”

“Uh, it’ll be more like the show without them! We’ll have to make do.” Adora turns to Catra. “Right Catra?”

She shrugs. “I guess. Pepperoni is overrated.”

“Whatever you guys say, the pizza’s yours.”

Adora slowly gets closer to C’yra before wrapping her arms around her. “Thank you.”

C’yra laughs. “No problem. Hey Catra! Come over here, let’s make this a group hug.”

Catra groans but joins in anyway.

____________________________________________________________

Adora’s alone in her dorm this time.

She doesn’t waste any time walking to the nearest bus stop to get to Catra’s town.

She’s fidgety the entire way there. There was no reason for C’yra to leave that day so everything should be fine but she’s still anxious.

  
  
Adora walks the rest of the way to Catra’s house.

She walks up the few stairs that lead to the porch and rings the doorbell.

“Adora?”

She could almost cry. C’yra’s alive, well, and there wasn’t an accident that paralyzed her from the waist down.

“Hi Miss C’yra. Is Catra home?”

“She is actually.” She turns her head to call up to Catra upstairs. “Catra! Adora’s here!” C’yra opens the door wider. “Here, come in.”

Adora steps inside and Catra rushes down the stairs. Her mouth drops when she sees her.

Obviously Adora thinks Catra’s pretty in every timeline but this one is different for some reason. Her hair stops at the tip of her shoulders, it’s about an inch or two shorter than Catra’s hair in her original timeline. She has on dark eyeshadow that’s smeared around her eyes, and she’s wearing a short sleeved black crop top with light ripped high waisted jeans. She notices wide fishnets showing in the rips.

“Well if it isn’t the softball superstar?”

“Catra...hi.”

“I’ll give you girls some space.” C’yra says.

“You practically ghost your best friend for two years and all you can say is hi?” 

Adora freezes. She suddenly realizes that she didn’t prepare for this at all. 

Catra bursts into laughter, “I’m kidding!”

“Really? Because I am really sorry about that. It was shitty.”

“I know. But honestly, all I ever really wanted was for you to come back.”

“Aw, I missed you too.”

Catra rolls her eyes. “Enough with the mushy stuff.” She grabs Adora’s wrist. “We’ve got a lot to catch up on! Plus, I don’t know if you’ve heard but, I’m practically a rockstar now.”

  
  
It turns out Catra’s the lead singer in a band with three women called The Wildcats, and that she wasn’t kicked out of Mystacor in this timeline. She transferred to online school for senior year as the band started getting small gigs. 

She also has a gig at a cafe tonight, which is how Adora ends up in the passenger seat of her car an hour after she arrived at Catra’s house. 

Catra plays a few of their songs in the car as well as a couple of demos. Adora’s surprised, she had no idea Catra has a voice like that. She’d heard Catra sing a few times when they were kids but she didn’t think she took it seriously. A lot must’ve changed in the few years they were apart.

When they get to the cafe two people are there setting things up on a small stage. One woman with purple hair and another that matches the picture and description on the missing posters all around the town in her timeline. 

A few minutes later someone else shows up.

“Adora?”

Adora turns around to look at the entrance. “Lonnie? You’re in a band with Catra?” This timeline is very...different to say the least.

“Yeah! She can be a pain in the ass sometimes but the girl’s got a voice. What brings you back here?”

“I actually just transferred to the School of Mystacor on a scholarship.”

“Nice. We’ll have to catch up sometime after the show!”

“Yeah! Definitely.”

Adora tries to help with whatever she can. But she can’t help but notice Catra and Scorpia. Catra seems happy though so her heart swells and aches at the same time. She tries to push it down. It’s only been a few hours in this timeline, and a few days in her own even though it feels like so much more.

Catra, Lonnie, Scorpia, and another woman Adora still doesn’t know the name of, start their set and more customers start filing in as well.

  
  


Catra sounds amazing in every song they perform but there’s one song about a breakup and Adora’s eyes don’t leave Catra for a second during it. She swears Catra was making direct eye contact with her at some points too.

Before she knows it Catra’s thanking everyone and promoting their EP which means the show’s over.

She watches Scorpia and Catra talk for a few more minutes before Catra comes over to her table smiling.

“So, whaddya think?”

“It was honestly amazing, Catra. You’re amazing.”

“Pfft. I wouldn’t say all of that but thanks. Anyways, I’m beat. Let’s get out of here.”

Adora follows Catra to the exit. “You don’t have to drive me back to Mystacor, I can take the bus.”

“You’re leaving already?”

“Yeah, sorry. I kinda have a strict practice schedule. Softball season is coming up.”

Catra smirks. “How about...you stay the night and I take you back in the morning so you won’t be late!”

“I don’t know…”

Catra gives her best pouty face. “Please, for old times sake? I’ll even wake up super early if that’s what it takes to get you there on time. And you know how much I hate waking up early.”

Adora sighs. “Fine.”

  
  
  
Several hours later she’s in a pair of Catra’s pajamas where the pants stop above her ankle and the shirt is a little tight because of how small Catra is. Adora’s lying down on her side, facing Catra on the bed.

She feels like she’s twelve again, staying up way later than C’yra approved of at one of their infamous sleepovers. 

Catra’s face is clear of makeup and her hair is in a ponytail. Adora can’t make out much of her features since all of the lights are turned off except for a small lamp on Catra’s bedside, but she still thinks- or knows matter of fact- Catra looks beautiful.

“What was your favorite song we did?” Catra abruptly asks.

“Mm definitely the breakup one.”

Catra chuckles. “You know, that’s funny because I wrote it about you.”

Adora blinks rapidly. “What?”

“Yeah, I did it not too long after you moved away and we started talking less and less. I didn’t write it as a romantic breakup song because we didn’t date or anything, but people took it that way and I just never corrected them.”

“Wow.”

Catra smiles softly. “Yeah.”

“I still don’t get why you aren’t angry with me.”

“I was at first. I was angry and lonely but then I met Scorpia and Entrapta and it took a while but I let them be my friends. They didn’t replace you in any way, shape, or form, but I think it helped with the initial hurt of us growing apart. And over the years all of my negative feelings towards you just faded into me missing having you around.” Catra pauses. “Plus things are really good right now. I see you coming back into my life as a positive but just...just try not to leave like that again. And being angry is really tiring, I think at this point I just wanna be happy with the people I care about. Especially after everything my mom’s been through.”

She wonders if C’yra is sick in this timeline. She looks healthy, but she looked healthy before too and that wasn’t the case. “What happened with your mom?”

Catra sighs. “Right. She was diagnosed with a really rare form of cancer and dealt with it for a few years. She’s okay now though. Next week marks her being cancer free for a year actually.”

“That’s good.” Adora stops and chews on her lip. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Mhm.”

“Is Scorpia your girlfriend?”

Catra laughs. “No. I am very much single.”

Adora feels guilty but a wave of relief washes over her. “Me too.”

“I’m surprised you’re single. You sure your softball team isn’t secretly pining over you?” Catra teases.

It’s Adora’s turn to laugh. “Yes, I am very sure.”

“Just going off the stereotype that all softball players are lesbians.”

Adora licks her lips. “You would know.” Catra did play softball on a competitive team with her for years.

Catra doesn’t respond but scoots closer.

“Catra-”

“Adora if you don’t kiss me right now I’ll literally kick your ass.”

“Sheesh. No dinner first?” Adora giggles.

“Shut up.” Catra mumbles.

Adora thinks she could stay in this timeline forever. She leans in.

____________________________________________________________

She opens her eyes and she’s in a room that doesn’t smell very pleasant. Adora turns her head and notices C’yra next to her sobbing.

She finally looks at what’s in front of them. 

It’s Catra.

It’s Catra on a cold metal table, her face littered with small bruises.

“How could he do this? How could he do this to my babygirl, his own niece.” C’yra says in between chest rattling sobs.

That’s all Adora needs to know.

She should’ve known this timeline was too good to be true.

Adora rubs C’yra’s shoulder. “It’ll be okay Miss C’yra.”

Adora apologizes to C’yra before grabbing ahold of the necklace. It’s not for what she thinks.

____________________________________________________________

C’yra’s phone is back in Adora’s hand. She presses ‘Unblock’ under Hordak’s name.

She makes her way back to the first floor.

Catra leaps off of the sofa as she approaches the living room. “Look who it is! Only took you fifty years. I'm surprised I’m not dead yet. Are you finally ready to make the pizza?”

Adora frowns. “Catra…” She grabs Catra’s hand and pulls her into the hallway in front of a bathroom.

“Did something happen?”

Adora gulps. “Catra, you are so so strong and I love you so much. You know that right?”

Catra blinks at her bluntness. “Of course. But why are you acting like the world is ending or something.”

Adora doesn’t respond and pulls her into a hug instead. “I just needed to make sure you know. And also know that I am so sorry if I’ve ever made you feel any differently.”

Catra’s arms wrap around her. “Adora?”

“Hm?”

“I love you too.”

____________________________________________________________

When Adora opens her eyes she’s back in Catra’s room from her timeline.

She immediately rushes downstairs when she notices Catra isn’t in there. 

“I see you’re finally up.” Catra says. She’s in the kitchen, her back turned.

Adora smiles and runs up to her, throwing her arms around Catra without a care in the world. Maybe she’s pissed at Adora in this timeline, but she’s here and that’s all Adora is asking for.

“Woah, woah, woah. Did you forget what personal space was after living in Eternia?”

“I guess so.” Adora pulls away after a few more seconds.

“Now that whatever that was is over, I can explain to you what I’ve been thinking.”

“And?”

Catra folds her arms and leans against a drawer. “I’m thinking this is all connected. My mom was only able to be killed by Hordak because he was able to control her whereabouts. While that’s not the case for Scorpia, the day she went missing she was over here. So I’m thinking him and Woven were looking for the same thing in Scorpia that was supposed to be in my mom. There’s no way Horde Industries isn’t involved in this.” Catra grins. “And I happen to know an excellent hacker that worked closely with Hordak, so not only will we find out what happened to Scorpia, we’re gonna find where they took her. And boy are they gonna pay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hii! i'm so sorry this took so long, i'm just a bad procrastinator tbh. feedback is always appreciated and i love reading the comments, it motivates me to write lol. 
> 
> come yell at me abt she-ra  
> tumblr: catrasbastard  
> twitter: catrazulas


	5. chapter five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> tw// semi graphic violence, ideation of death
> 
> catra and adora look for scorpia, adora's visions finally catch up to her.

Adora sighs as she studies the bulletin board in front of her. 

  
  


They’ve been adding to it and working on it for the past two days. But they’re hiding it in Catra’s bathroom later on because Catra had the idea to go downtown to see Entrapta to get information, as well as stay with her to avoid seeing Hordak when he gets back from his business trip. 

  
  


Adora looks at Catra, who’s on a computer at her desk. The ring around her neck is dark blueish purple with a crusty yellow around the edges. 

  
  


She can’t believe it hasn’t even been a week yet. Her time with Catra has felt like a lifetime.

  
  


She thinks about the alternate universes a lot. Mainly the good parts but the bad ones seep into her mind at times too. 

  
  


She thinks about kissing Catra the most. 

  
  


Adora stares blankly at the road as an image appears in her mind. It relates to the nightmare she had her first night with Catra, except bloodier. Bodies are piled and SWAT team trucks pull up.

  
  


Glimmer, Bow, Catra…

  
  


Adora shakes her head. It isn’t real.

  
  


“Adora, the light!”

  
  


Someone honks at her and she presses her foot against the pedal. “Sorry. Spaced out.”

  
  


“Maybe try not to do that while I don’t know, driving?”

  
  


“Yeah...right.”

  
  
  
  


They arrive at Entrapta’s and she’s surprised to see them but lets them in anyway. “Hi Catra! Who’s your friend?”

  
  


Catra sighs like she’s exhausted already. “Entrapta, this is Adora, Adora this is Entrapta.”

  
  


“Nice to meet you Entrapta.”

  
  


“Ditto! What brings you guys here?”

  
  


“Scorpia.” Catra says.

  
  


Entrapta’s face falls. Adora guesses they were friends too.

  
  


“What about her? Did you find out any new information?”   
  


Catra’s expression is unreadable. “Not exactly, but we think Hordak has to do with it. I found out something going through his work contacts one day but his codes have changed since and you’re the best hacker I know.”

  
  


“I’m- I’m not sure how I feel about this. Hordak is- or was- my friend and so is Scorpia. I know he wasn’t the nicest but he wouldn’t do something like that. Not to you, he knows you guys were close. Plus you’re his family.” Entrapta explains.

  
  


“Hordak doesn’t give a shit about family, Entrapta.”

  
  


“But how do we know? According to my data-”

  
  


Adora turns to Catra. Entrapta needs to see the harsh reality of who he is. “Show her.”

  
  


Catra’s eyes drop to the ground. Entrapta’s eyes go from her to Catra. Adora keeps her dead on Catra, waiting for a response.

  
  


“I just know. Okay?”

That was weird to say the least. Catra wouldn’t miss an opportunity to shit on Hordak.

  
  


“I’ll see what I can do. But I don’t want to go too far until you know for sure he’s involved. Getting my equipment together might take a while so you guys are free to spend the night. There’s an extra room towards the back.”

  
  


Catra nods. “Thanks.” She begins to walk towards the room Entrapta mentioned and Adora follows.

  
  


She notices that Catra starts to bring her hand up to her neck before stopping and sitting on the edge of the bed. 

  
  


“There’s something you’re not telling me isn’t it.”

  
  


“It’s not a big deal.”

  
  


“Catra.”

  
  


Catra’s silent and looks as if she’s contemplating what to say. “Entrapta...she doesn’t work with Hordak anymore because I sent her away.”

  
  


Adora’s eyebrows furrow. “What do you mean you sent her away?”

“When I found out about Hordak’s involvement with my mom’s death I was pissed. I wasn’t only angry that she was gone, I was angry that he got away with it and he was still able to do whatever he wanted and live his life while my mother’s corpse was wasting away six feet underground.”

  
  


Adora’s mind goes back to the alternate timeline for a moment.

  
  


_ “Just because I’m wasting away doesn’t mean you need to as well.” _

  
  


“He’d been working closely with Entrapta for the past few months and they were close. She put him in a good mood somehow. So right after I found out about my mom I sent Entrapta an email from an account pretending to be a higher member of Horde industries claiming she was now to work in a different area of Etheria. Then I figured out a way to make it look like Entrapta no longer wanted to work with Hordak on her part so it would hurt him. And it did.”

  
  


Hordak’s conversation with Catra before he strangled her replays in her head. “So he figured out that you sent her away and…”

  
  


Catra’s face falls. “Yeah. And maybe if I wasn’t such an impulsive idiot-”

  
  


“Catra, no. This isn’t on you.” 

  
  


She laughs dryly. “Then whose fault is it? I knew Hordak was a piece of shit. He choked me when I was kicked out of Mystacor too and yet…” Catra drifts off and wipes her eye with the back of her hand.

  
  


Adora rushes to the edge of the bed and holds her tightly. “You don’t deserve that, Catra. No one deserves that.”

  
  


Catra doesn’t protest her comforting and continues to cry. “That’s why I couldn’t tell her. And I know I always talk about how awful he is but being here when it’s literally the reason he even did it in the first place…”

  
  


Adora kneels down in front of Catra and gently places her hand on both of her cheekbones. Catra slowly lifts her head, her face tear streaked. 

  
  


“Hordak was wrong for what he did to C’yra. And maybe you shouldn’t have sent Entrapta away, but I understand. If you tell her what happened I’m one-hundred percent sure she will too, okay?”

  
  


Catra nods.

  
  


“And we’re gonna make him pay for what he did. Not only for your mom but for whatever happened to Scorpia, just like you said. And I’m gonna make sure of it.” Adora pulls Catra in for a hug that Catra slowly returns.

  
  


They stay there for a few minutes, neither Catra or Adora showing any sign of moving. She wishes they could stay like this forever. No worries about Hordak, Horde industries, or their past.

  
  


Entrapta barges in. “My equipment is set up, and I figured out Hordak’s password, it was surprisingly easy!” 

  
  


She pauses and Adora lets go of Catra.

  
  


“Oh. Am I interrupting something? Scorpia once told me that you mentioned a girl named Adora a lot.”

  
  


Catra’s eyes widen. “Anyway…” She sighs. “Entrapta, I need to talk to you.”

  
  


“Okay!”

  
  


Catra gets up and follows Entrapta towards the door. She glances at Adora over her shoulder, Adora gives her a small smile.

  
  


The door shuts and she overhears Entrapta telling Catra to help herself to the platter of tiny food.

  
  


A little while later Entrapta re-enters the room, her shoulders hanging low and her eyes glued to the floor. “My equipment’s altogether and Catra and I talked so you can come out now.”

An apology was on the tip of Adora’s tongue but Entrapta left before she could say it. She doesn’t know the woman very well but she can tell that she cared- well, cares- about Hordak.

  
  


She stares at the door for a moment before leaving the room to come up with a plan with Entrapta and Catra. 

  
  


Entrapta’s typing furiously on her laptop as Catra sits next to her squinting at the screen. Adora sits across from them.

  
  


“I was able to use old passcodes I was given when I closely worked with Hordak to access his new partners emails so now all I have to do is look for something that seems secretive.”

  
  


“Do you know if anyone will find out that someone in a different location logged in?” Catra asks.

  
  


“They won’t. This is my computer that  _ can’t _ be tracked. I wired it that way.”

  
  


It’s Adora’s turn to ask a question.“You made the computer yourself?” 

  
  


Entrapta’s still typing, hitting her keyboard keys like a madman. “Yep! And… I found something!”

  
  


Catra’s eyes scan Entrapta’s screen. “What?”   
  


“It’s a warehouse.”

  
  


“That can’t be it. Hordak has tons of warehouses it has to be something specific-”

  
  


“Data never lies, Catra. Besides, this is a warehouse that I was never given any information on and I was given access to nearly anything when I worked with Hordak. It doesn’t have the usual Horde Industries logo or anything.”

  
  


“That does sound suspicious.” Adora adds.

  
  


“It’s also wooden and in a woody area surrounded by trees.”

  
  


Catra’s eyes still haven’t left the screen. “Super suspicious.”

  
  


“Okay, I’ve got a specific location.” Entrapta turns her laptop sideways so all three of them can see the screen.

  
  


“That’s not far from here at all.” She looks up at Adora. “We can leave out around midnight, Hordak’s always home by that time.”

  
  
  


They both lie in the guest room in a comfortable silence until Adora rolls onto her side.

  
  


“You ready to find out what happened to Scorpia?”

  
  


Catra sighs. “Yeah but everything just feels...super  _ weird.” _

  
  


“What do you mean?”

  
  


“I just can’t believe this is all happening. I mean, I never once thought that after the whole thing with Hordak that all of this running around would lead us to her. Or lead us to more clues at least.”

  
  


“No. We’re gonna find her. It’s like you said, all of this has to be connected somehow right?”

  
  


Catra sighs. “Maybe. But I think what’s even crazier is the fact that you’re doing this for someone you’ve never even met without any hesitation.”

  
  


Adora stops to think for a moment. She really had charged into this situation without any hesitation and honestly hadn’t thought about it any differently throughout the past few days either. She wanted to reconnect with Catra, which led her to using her newfound power to help Catra, which led her to finding out more about C’yra and now possibly even Scorpia. “I guess you could say it’s crazy, but all of this is somehow tied to you and I promised myself that I’d be there for you no matter what this time. Plus, my power can really help us find your friend. It’s the right thing to do.”

  
  


Catra scoffs but there’s a small hint of a smile on her face. “Of course you would join what’s essentially a wild goose chase because it’s the right thing to do.”

  
  


“And I did it for you.”

  
  


Catra stares at her wide-eyed for a moment but doesn’t respond.

____________________________________________________________

  
  


They try to get some rest before heading out in the middle of the night but Adora keeps waking up with wisps of hair sticking to her sweaty forehead. She tries to keep her breathing even so she won’t wake Catra.

  
  


Everytime she manages to drift asleep  _ those _ visions of the future play in her head.

  
  


After waking up for the fifth time she decides to just watch Catra sleep. She resists the urge to move a few strands of hair out of her face.

  
  
  


Adora’s alarm goes off about an hour later. Catra rubs at her eyes and they slowly open. Adora doesn’t know why she doesn’t look away but Catra doesn’t question her either.

  
  


Catra yawns before speaking. “Did you even sleep at all?”

  
  


“Yeah. Just woke up early.” She lies with ease.

  
  


They pass Entrapta on their way out. She’s wide awake, eyes glued to her laptop. Adora hasn’t known her for very long but she can’t say she’s surprised the woman is up at this hour.

  
  


Catra clears her throat and Entrapta swivels around in her rolling chair. “You guys headed out?”

  
  


Adora sighs. “Yeah.”

  
  


“Alright uh, be safe! And if Scorpia’s out there...bring her home.” Entrapta says.

  
  


“We will.” Catra says without hesitation.

  
  


Adora gives the brunette a small smile before unlocking the car and following her out of Entrapta’s front door.

  
  
  


Adora’s jittery throughout the car ride while Catra stares out the window, eyes drooping. The visions of the future apparently like to plague her mind at the worst possible times.

  
  


She tries to keep her hands from shaking since she’s driving and doesn’t even notice how her pace of breathing changes. 

  
  


_ Glimmer’s hurt and so is Bow and it’s her fault. She didn’t even get to explain why she hadn’t been around much since Catra came back into her life. And Catra...Catra dies over and over again. And Adora keeps having to go back to fix it but she misses something every time which results in someone else getting hurt and then she closes her eyes and time is still the same meaning- _

  
  


“You good?” Catra asks at a red light.

  
  


“Yeah! Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?”

  
  


Catra looks at her like she doesn’t buy it. “Okay. Just… just know that everything’s gonna turn out fine after tonight. You don’t have to stress yourself out worrying about Horde Industries anymore and I know that once we find Scorpia she’ll be super thankful for everything. You two will hit it off well.”

  
  


“Aww, Catra…” Adora lightly shoves at her knee.

“Don’t ruin it.”

  
  


“Maybe me, you, Scorpia, Glimmer, and Bow could hang out together. Our dorms are a decent size we could have a sleepover and-”

  
  


Catra folds her arms. “And you ruined it.”

  
  


Adora laughs and she doesn’t think about the visions for the rest of the drive.

  
  
  
  


They walk through the large woody area mostly in silence, the only thing Adora consistently hears are leaves crunching underneath Catra’s combat boots and her own heartbeat. Both of their phones are out with the flashlights on and pointed in front of them. 

  
  


Catra apparently asked Entrapta if she had any  _ real _ flashlights before they left but she didn’t.

  
  


After walking in what felt like no specific direction for about twenty minutes they reached a path that had a wooden warehouse like the one Entrapta described. 

  
  


“That’s it!” Catra whisper shouts. 

Catra begins to speed walk and Adora does the same to keep up.

  
  


Then there’s a cracking sound underneath Catra’s boot. She lifts her foot up, shines the light on it and gasps. “Oh my god. Oh my fucking god.”

  
  


“What? What is it?” Adora asks frantically.

  
  


“It’s an earring. It’s  _ Scorpia’s _ earring.”

  
  


Catra’s squatting down to examine the piece of jewelry and Adora stands right next to her. “How do you know that?”

  
  


“Besides the fact that literally nobody else could’ve been here, she wore them the last time I saw her. She made them herself.” Catra adds, eyes glued to the broken earring on the ground.

  
  


“So she definitely had to be here at some point if she’s not still here now.”

  
  


“Exactly.”

  
  


Adora moves her phone around the area surrounding her and Catra. She swears she sees a shadowy figure in the light her phone provides but she blinks and it’s gone. “Come on, we should get into the warehouse. These woods are freaking me out.”

Just as her and Catra begin to stand up she feels a sharp pain in her back that feels an awful lot like an electric shock. Adora’s palm touches her back as she turns around to see the shadowy figure again, a few feet away. The figure slowly begins to uncloak themself. 

  
  


“Adora? Are you-”

  
  


Adora rushes to her feet and shoves Catra to move her ahead. “Catra come on we have to run. Now.”

  
  


“What-”

  
  


Adora cuts her off again and drags her by the wrist. “There’s no time. We have to g-” Adora lets out a loud groan and her phone drops to the ground. It feels like all of her limbs have been compacted by something and she can’t move.

  
  


She can see Catra’s eyes in the small light provided by Catra’s phone and for the first time since they’ve reunited they’re filled to the brim with raw fear. 

“Adora? Adora come on, whatever you’re doing isn’t funny.”

  
  


“Run Catra. Get as far away from here as you can.”

  
  


“You’re kidding. I’m not leaving you here.” Catra pauses before continuing. “Adora what is going-” A red strike of electricity sends Catra flying back in front of a tree a few feet in front of her. 

  
  


Catra clutches at the side where she was striked and looks up at the figure behind Adora. “Holy shit.”

  
  


“Hello Catra, Adora.” 

  
  


Adora’s eyes widen at the voice.  _ Mrs. Woven. _

  
  


The woman sends another strike towards Catra’s head and she falls to the ground.

  
  


“ _ Catra!”  _ She screams and uses every bit of strength to try and move but she can’t. Then a blast of magic hits Adora’s temple and she blacks out.

___________________________________________________________

Adora slowly opens her eyes and finds herself in an unfamiliar room. She tries to lift her hand but finds it’s strapped to the arm of a wooden chair. Her legs are strapped too.

  
  


She hears metal clanging together from another part of the room and snaps her head around.

  
  


“Ah. You’re finally awake I see.” Mrs. Woven makes her way towards her with a scalpel in her hand.

  
  


Adora stares at the cemented floor in front of her. “Why are you doing this?”

  
  


Her teacher chuckles, lifting Adora’s chin with the opposite end of the scalpel. “You always did ask a lot of questions. Though that changed when we met again this semester. May I ask why?”

  
  


Adora’s eyebrows furrow. “Go to hell.”

  
  


“Ouch. See, the Adora I once knew would never say this to her beloved teacher. Catra must be getting to you again.”

  
  


Adora gulps and blinks several times to prevent herself from tearing up. “You won’t get away with what you did to her. Or what you and Hordak did to Scorpia.”

  
  


The woman shakes her head as if she’s disappointed and continues to lightly poke at Adora’s temple. “This could’ve been so much better if you hadn’t meddled around with that lowlife friend of yours.” She sighs. “But I suppose that I’ll give you one last chance to get out of doing this the hard way. Tell me where your magic lies within you so I can extract it, and I’ll let you and Catra go.”

  
  


“Catra’s alive?”

  
  


Mrs. Woven shrugs. “Maybe, maybe not. But wouldn’t you like to take her while there’s still a chance?”

  
  


Adora squints. “How do you know about my power?”

  
  


“I can feel it radiating off of you. I always have.”

  
  


“Give us Scorpia and you have a deal.”   
  


Mrs. Woven chuckles. “You really think you’re in the position to negotiate? The deal is you and Catra get to leave. No one else.”

  
  


Adora cocks her head. “Then I guess there’s no deal.”

  
  


The old woman is silent for a moment. “Then I guess we’ll have to do this the hard way won’t we?” “Bring her out!” She calls to the room next to them.

  
  


Hordak carries Catra through the door over his shoulder. Adora notices a zip tie around her wrists. He tosses her against the wall and Adora winces.

  
  


“Catra? Come on, Catra... wake up.” Adora doesn’t care how desperate she sounds in front of Mrs. Woven and Hordak. She decides from that moment on that Catra is her top priority.

  
  


She’s silent for what feels like an eternity but Adora’s eyes never leave the brunette’s face. 

  
  


Catra begins to cough weakly and Adora lets out a sigh of relief. 

  
  


She groans and her eyes open and adjust to her surroundings. “Adora?”

  
  


“Catra? Catra, I’m over here it’s okay.”

  
  


Catra looks at Adora and gives her a small smile.

  
  


“Catra, would you be a dear and tell Hordak where Adora’s magic lies? I know if she were to tell anybody about it i’d be you.”

  
  


Adora feels sick to her stomach.

  
  


Catra gives the woman a weak grin that Adora knows is fake. “Sure. Hordak just...just crouch down a little lower it’s hard to talk because of y’know...the  _ incident _ .”

  
  


Hordak does as he’s told and Catra leans forward as if she’s about to whisper but headbutts him instead. Before he can recover she lifts her feet up and kicks his stomach sending him to his back. Mrs. Woven begins to send red strikes of electricity in her direction but Catra dodges them and gets on her feet. She kicks Hordak - who’s still groaning in pain - to the side and runs to the table Mrs. Woven was standing by when Adora first woke up. Catra reaches for something on the tray but it falls from her hand and onto the floor. 

  
  


Catra’s frozen in place, eyes on Adora’s. 

  
  


“You were an insolent child and now you’re an insolent adult. You never had any regard for the rules in my classroom up until your last day at Mystacor. Which is why even if I did let you out of this unscathed, you’d end up a nobody, riding on Adora’s coattails for the rest of your life.” With every word the woman says the darker the magic gets as well as the further up Catra is in the air. 

  
  


Catra’s face grows increasingly fearful but she still keeps her eyes on Adora’s.

  
  


Adora can’t hold back her cries anymore, she doesn’t even try. “Mrs. Woven please!  _ Please stop!” _

  
  


“I cannot believe C’yra produced something as pathetic as you are. Every breath you take is disrespectful to not only her memory but your own family name. But now Catra, I am doing you a favor.”

  
  


The magic surrounding Catra goes completely black and Catra’s eyes finally leave Adora’s to roll back towards her head. Mrs. Woven lets her body fall to the floor, limp and completely lifeless.

  
  


“ _ No!”  _ Adora screams and things go white for a moment. She blinks again and she’s back in Entrapta’s guest room with Catra.

  
  


“Catra!” She nearly tackles Catra in a hug.

  
  


“Woah, woah, woah. Adora what-” Adora caresses Catra’s face with both of her hands and she immediately stops talking.

  
  


“You’re okay…” Adora’s hands linger before she moves away.

  
  


Catra clears her throat. “You haven’t been messing with time right?”

  
  


Adora vigorously shakes her head. “We made it to the warehouse but I traveled back. I had to.”

  
  


“ _ Why? _ ”

  
  


“Turns out our old teacher Mrs. Woven was involved with everything too and she got her hands on some pretty powerful magic. She captured us and you tried to escape but stopped you and…”

  
  


“Killed me.” Catra finishes her sentence. She’s noticed the pattern of Adora travelling back happening because Catra didn’t survive in that timeline.

  
  


“Yeah. But somehow I made it back here without using the necklace.”

  
  


Catra stops to think for a moment. “Maybe the jeweler saying magic is prevalent didn’t exactly mean that the jewelry  _ gives _ you power. Maybe it’s just inside of you and the necklace helps. When I wore that necklace it didn’t give me any magical advances. Your “A” lettered one didn’t either.”

  
  


“Then that means I can go back!”

  
  


“Adora what do you mean  _ go back _ ? Mrs. Woven captured you once and she’ll do it again. We need a new plan.”

  
  


“You don’t understand, I can go back and use the fact that I know what her plans are to my advantage as well as time itself since I can travel without the necklace. And you can stay here where you’ll be safe.”

  
  


Catra just blinks. “But what about you? Sure I’ll be safe but if Woven’s working with Horde industries there’s no telling what she’ll be willing to do to you.”

  
  


“I can just go back before it gets that bad. I’ll get answers on Scorpia, come back here and then everything will be okay.”

  
  


“ _ Adora,  _ even if you do go back you’ll still remember everything that happened. You’ll still be hurt. Besides this is my battle to fight you’ve already done enough for Scorpia and I.”

  
  


“But this is what my power is for. What good is it if I can’t help you and keep you safe, Catra? This is my decision and it’s final.”

  
  


Catra scoffs. “Oh so you get to boss me around all week but the second I suggest something it gets shut down.”

  
  


Adora rolls her eyes. “That stuff was different, it was so you’d be-”

  
  


“Safe? Why do you think I don’t want you going dummy?”

  
  


Adora slowly peels the blanket off of herself before jumping out of the guest bed and running to the door.

  
  


“Adora, stop!” Catra follows her to Entrapta’s kitchen where Adora grabs Catra’s keys off of the counter. She practically pounces on Adora, reaching for her arm to take the key away.

  
  


Entrapta lifts a pair of headphones off of her head. “What’s going on guys?”

Catra huffs as she’s straddling Adora’s waist, one hand on her collarbone the other reacher for the keys Adora has above her head. “Adora here, is trying to get herself killed by going to the warehouse alone.”

  
  


“I am  _ not _ . I’m  _ trying _ to prevent anyone else from getting hurt.”

  
  


“Except yourself.”

  
  


Adora doesn’t respond.

  
  


“Going to the warehouse alone at this hour isn’t safe.” Entrapta adds

  
  


Catra looks at the purple haired woman and then back at Adora. “Two against one.”

  
  


“I already told you Catra, I’m not letting you make this decision for me.” 

Catra lets her guard down for a moment and Adora shoves her off of her.

  
  


Catra stops trying to fight her as Adora opens the front door. “You always do this y’know.”

  
  


“Catra, you know I’m not doing this to hurt you.”

  
  


“Yeah you’re doing it to  _ protect _ me and I don’t need protection. I don’t need you to solve my problems, Adora.”

  
  


“What good is my power if I can’t help the people I-” Adora turns around and forces herself to give the brunette a small reassuring smile. “I’ll be back later, I promise.”

  
  


Adora swears she sees a tear roll down Catra’s face.

  
  
  


She’s strapped to the chair inside of the warehouse alone now, content in knowing Catra’s not unconscious in the other room. Adora doesn’t feel the necklace around her neck anymore and lets out a shaky exhale in order to calm down her breathing.

  
  


_ It doesn’t matter, she can travel without it now. _

  
  


She answers every one of her professor's questions to the best of her ability as she pokes and prods as possible places on her upper body that could be her ‘magical vessel’.

  
  


“I’ll give you all of my power under one condition.”

  
  


The woman chuckles. “You aren’t in much of a position to be making deals but since you’ve been respectful I guess I’ll hear you out.”

  
  


“You have to tell me where Scorpia is and let us both go.”

  
  


“Sweet, sweet, Adora...you didn’t think I would just let you go while knowing all of this information did you?”

  
  


Adora gulps but tries to keep a straight face. “What did you plan on doing…”

  
  


“A quick mind wipe. I can’t promise you that significant memories wouldn’t be erased though as I plan to erase your entire span of memories during your time with the magic as well as your usage of it.” 

  
  


“My usage of it?” She thinks of all the times Catra died and she had to bring her back. She’d be gone forever by the hands of Hordak, nobody would know what truly happened and she wouldn’t remember.

  
  


“No. You can’t-”

  
  


The woman hushes her. “This is the way to extract the magic and assure nothing in this industry goes wrong. But don’t worry,” She strokes Adora’s cheek. “I’ll still let you and Scorpia go. You just won’t remember anything.”

  
  


Adora can hear her heart pounding in her ears. She wishes she just listened to Catra back at Entrapta’s. And she knows it selfish as her reason for even going back to the warehouse was to keep Catra safe but she wishes she was here so she didn’t have to be alone. But now any memory of her and Catra in this timeline past the age of thirteen will be gone and even worse, Catra will die alone thinking Adora never cared.

  
  


Adora squeezes her eyes shut imagining Catra and her in Entrapta’s guest room again, talking in bed. She opens them and she’s still strapped to the chair.

  
  


She does this a few more times, each time more frantic than the next. Then she opens her eyes to a red crackle of lightning between Mrs. Woven’s hands. 

  
  


“It’ll only hurt for a minute at the most, Adora. And then you’ll be free. Just like you wanted.”

  
  


Adora feels like all of the air has left her lungs and she’s gasping for oxygen. Tears blur her vision and Mrs. Woven gets closer and closer and-

The magic leaves the space between her hands as a loud shot goes off.

  
  


_ Catra. _

  
  


The door to the room beside them bursts open and Catra slowly walks in, a gun in her hands that more than likely belongs to Hordak. 

  
  


“Get the  _ hell _ away from her Mrs. Woven or god help me…”

The old woman cocks her head. “Catra, nice to see you again too.” She doesn’t wait a single second before sending red strikes of electricity in her direction, one of them causing Catra to drop the gun in her hands.

  
  


Catra quickly pulls a blade out of her jacket pocket as she dodges the strikes. 

  
  


Moments later the old woman stops with the strikes of red, her appearance going nearly invisible as she cloaks herself and transports around the room. Catra runs around the room, using furniture to dodge hits this time.

  
  


Adora’s eyes follow the shadow around the room until the movement comes to a stop. Catra looks around as well, facing Adora.

  
  


Adora sees a shadow slowly begin to appear behind Catra. “Catra, behind you!”

  
  


Catra pivot turns with the blade raised before plunging it into the old woman’s neck, twisting it, and finally dragging it down to her chest. She pulls the blade out, specks of Woven’s blood splattering onto her face and shirt but Catra doesn’t flinch. She runs over to Adora and Adora thinks it’s too good to be true.

  
  


She can already feel her lip begin to tremble as Catra places her hands on top of her shoulders, careful that the blade doesn’t poke Adora. Catra kneels down to cut the rope attaching her feet to the chairs legs and then stands back up to cut the straps holding down her wrists.

  
  


Adora throws her arms around Catra’s neck and immediately sobs into the crook of it. “Catra...you saved me.”

  
  


Catra hesitantly raises her own arms to return the hug. “Don’t do that again, okay? You scared me.”

  
  


Adora hesitantly pulls away. She wants more than anything to stay there, in Catra’s arms for a little while longer but she knows they have more important things to do. “Scorpia, she’s here and she’s alive. Mrs. Woven told me before...y’know.”

“Good. I think I have an idea for how we can find out where they kept her too.” Catra walks back into the other room and practically drags Hordak out as he’s clutching his bleeding foot. 

  
  


“You didn’t…” Adora trails off but Catra catches her drift.

  
  


Catra drops one of his limbs and he groans. “Kill him? Trust me, I want him gone more than anything especially after what he did to my mom but he’s too valuable.”

  
  


Adora idly thinks that if their roles were reversed she wouldn’t have cared to think that far ahead. She would’ve gladly taken him out if he was in the way of her getting to Catra. 

“How?...” Hordak asks weakly. 

  
  


“I overheard your conversation with someone the day Scorpia went missing. So I went through your files. It's the reason why I sent Entrapta away, you dipshit.”

  
  


Adora kneels down to his level. “And now you’re gonna tell us where Scorpia is or I’ll break your calf instead of bruising it this time.”

  
  


“...To your left there’s a door and when you open it, it’ll take you down a long hall. At the end there’s a glass cell. Your friend is in there.”

  
  


Adora stands up. “You ready?”

  
  


Catra picks up the gun that she dropped earlier. “Yep.”

  
  


They start walking towards the left side of the warehouse but stop as Hordak begins to speak. “Catra.”

  
  


“What.” Her voice is cold. Adora knows that Catra can be mean but she doesn’t think she’s ever heard this much hostility in her voice.

  
  


“Your mother...she was always going to die. My men just made it happen sooner rather than later.”

Catra’s hand flies to the blade currently occupying her belt loop. “If you say another word-”

  
  


He interrupts anyway. “She was sick. A rare cancer. It was in her autopsy but I spared you the detail.” 

  
  


Catra’s entire demeanor changes. “There’s no way...she would’ve told me. And don’t you dare say you spared me a fucking detail when you’re the reason she’s dead in the first place.”

  
  


Adora sighs. She knows she can’t keep this from her. “Catra…”

  
  


“What? Don’t tell me you believe him.”

  
  


Adora’s eyes drop to the floor.

  
  


Catra squints at the blonde. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  
  


“I went back-”

  
  


“You told me you didn’t mess with time, Adora.”

  
  


Adora continues. “I couldn’t tell you. Not after the concert. I..I went back to that day and tried to prevent her from seeing the message from Hordak about her dad so there’d be no reason for her to leave. Meaning those guys couldn’t target her. I caught her going through a bunch of medicine and she told me she was sick. The results from the first time I traveled back ended up with her in a wheelchair and with her respiratory system still in bad shape, and you either had to take care of her or leave her with a caretaker. I didn’t want to put you through that so I went back again and did it differently. C’yra was okay and healthy in that one but you ended up dead in the end and I couldn’t let you go. I just couldn’t.”

  
  


Adora thinks that Catra will get angry at her or break down into pure hysterics like she did in the car but she stands there frowning, her chest heaving as if she’s gasping for air.

A shaky hand covers her mouth and Catra cries. 

  
  


Adora places a hand on her shoulder for a split second but Catra falls to her knees, her entire body shaking as she sobs. As Adora joins her on the floor, pulling her into her chest she thinks of C’yra’s funeral and how Catra didn’t even cry this hard back then.

  
  


“The doctors caught the cancer early, Catra. I don’t know for sure whether or not she would’ve been here but he’s probably just trying to get in your head. C’yra wouldn’t lie to you, she told me she planned on telling you right after I left but we both know that chance was taken from her. And she told you in one of the timelines that she wants you to be happy. That she didn’t want you wasting away like she was, stuck in this constant cycle of pain. She cared too much about you to keep that from you.”

“Really?”

  
  


Adora smiles and nods, her own eyes brought to tears. “Yes  _ really.” _

  
  


Catra wipes her eyes and sighs. “I believe you.” 

  
  


Adora feels like there’s something unspoken in that moment as well. ‘ _ I believe you over him.’  _

  
  


“Let’s go get Scorpia.” The brunette adds.

  
  


Neither one of them look at Hordak as they walk through the door. 

  
  


Catra sprints down the dark hall calling out the girl’s name.    
  


_ “Scorpia?”  _

  
  


Adora struggles to keep up but eventually catches up to her as Catra stops at a cell with a white light revealing a keypad. She can make out the outline of a pale buff woman leaning against the wall through the dim light.

  
  


“Fuck.” Catra pauses before she starts banging on the glass with a balled up fist.

“Catra stop!” Adora grabs a hold of her arm to try to keep her from injuring her hand but she just raises another fist and keeps banging. 

  
  


The glass slowly begins to crack and Adora reluctantly drops Catra’s hand. She decides to start hitting the glass with her.

  
  


Eventually it shatters completely and Catra makes her way into the cell, ignoring the shards all around her. “Scorpia? Scorpia it’s me, you can’t die now, not when I finally find you.” 

  
  


Scorpia groans. “ _ Catra?” _

  
  


Catra wraps her arms around her. “Scorpia, I’m so sorry that this happened to you. And I’m sorry that I was such an asshole sometimes...especially the last time I saw you. I missed you  _ so  _ much.”

  
  


Adora sees flickers of red electricity in the air and Catra yelps, jumping back into the scattered shards of glass. 

  
  


“Sorry! I can’t exactly control that yet. It’s especially hard after Woven comes in for a recharge.”

  
  


“So I was right. Hordak  _ did  _ take you to give her your magic...I just don’t understand why she kept you here instead of just taking it.”

  
  


“My power couldn’t be removed so she decided to keep me here and extract it from my hands when she needed to. I tried making deals and doing whatever I could to get her to let me go home but she wouldn’t budge.” 

  
  


“Well you’re going home now. Or at least after a trip to the hospital.” Catra extends her hand.

  
  


Scorpia sighs. “I thought I’d never get out of here.” She looks up, sees Adora and looks to Catra. Adora awkwardly waves at her.

  
  


“Right. Scorpia, this is my friend Adora. Adora, as you can tell, this is Scorpia. And if I’m being honest I wouldn’t have been able to find you without her.” 

  
  


“Thank you.” Scorpia says before pulling her into a bone crushing hug. “Sorry, I should’ve mentioned that I’m a hugger.”

  
  


____________________________________________________________

  
  


Catra drives them to the hospital. She ignores Adora’s protests, her explanation being that Adora was literally just being held captive and her memories were almost erased.

  
  


Catra calls Scorpia’s moms on the way there and they meet them at the hospital as well as Adora’s friends, Glimmer and Bow. 

  
  


The doctor Catra saw a mere few days ago that happens to be one of Bow’s brothers takes care of issues with the police. Though Catra has to talk to them about their former teacher and how she stabbed and killed her in self defense. 

  
  


Immediately after they arrive, Bow and Glimmer pull Adora into a tight hug. 

  
  


Bow pulls away first, rubbing at her shoulders. “Are you okay? We were worried sick!”

  
  


Adora sighs. “Yeah, I’m okay.”

  
  


“Good. And now that we’re finally altogether you can give us an explanation on why you’ve been so distant lately and how you ended up in a Horde industry warehouse with someone who’s been missing for six months. It’s funny because you only started shutting us out when you started hanging back out with-” 

  
  


Glimmer is interrupted by Catra who just walked out of Scorpia’s room. “Hey Adora.”

  
  


“Speak of the devil…” Catra raises an eyebrow at Glimmer’s comment but doesn’t say anything. 

“I didn’t really get to ask but are you okay? No brain damage right?” Catra gives her a small smile in an attempt to lighten the mood.

  
  


Adora smiles back. “None. Are you okay?” Only Catra knows what she’s referring to.

  
  


“No offense Adora, but why are you asking if _ she’s  _ okay?” Glimmer walks toward Catra. “You start hanging out with her again and suddenly she’s in a Horde industry warehouse where she’s held captive and is nearly  _ tortured _ !” She turns back to Adora. “Adora, when we encouraged you to reconnect with your childhood friend this was  _ not _ what we meant.”

  
  


Catra folds her arms and Adora can tell by her expression that she was growing defensive of herself. “Sorry to interrupt  _ Sparkles,  _ but I didn’t drag Adora into anything. In fact, I was adamant on not bringing her into this when it got dangerous but she drove herself to the warehouse and I went there to save her.”

  
  


Adora feels a sharp pain in her head and doesn’t pay attention to anything her friends ask her. All she can see is the Horde industry magic riot and all of her friends ending up dead and-

  
  


Catra stops arguing for a moment, noticing Adora clearly being in pain. _ “Adora?”  _

  
  


It’s the last thing she hears before her vision goes black and everything is silent.

  
  
  


Adora wakes up in a hospital bed, Glimmer and Bow in chairs beside her, both of them asleep while Glimmer has her head on Bow’s shoulder. On her other side Catra is asleep as well. She’s slouching in her chair with her arms crossed and head down.

  
  


Adora watches her for a few minutes. Specks of blood are still evident on Catra’s shirt and she thinks about Mrs. Woven for a moment. She feels slightly guilty for being okay with her death. She just wishes the blood wasn’t on Catra’s hands.

Catra’s head snaps up and she rubs at her eyes. She notices that Adora’s awake immediately. “You’re awake, good. The nurse wants you to drink this.” Catra hands her a small paper cup filled with water off of a small table.

  
  


Adora gulps it down quickly. 

  
  


“The doctor ran some tests and said you were probably just shaken up from everything that happened. She’s gonna come back in later to check on you and if everything’s fine you’re good to go.”

  
  


“That’s good.”

  
  


Catra exhales. “Sparkles and crop top called your parents. They’re glad you’re okay and wanna take the next flight down here to come and see you.”

  
  


“That’s nice but...I just wanna go home.”

  
  


Catra lifts an eyebrow. “Like, back to your dorm?”

  
  


Adora shakes her head. “Back to Eternia. I just don’t think I can go back to school right now.” She thinks of a time where her home was basically Catra and C’yra’s.

  
  


Catra’s silent and Adora remembers that she doesn’t really have a home at the moment either. 

  
  


“I know you probably don’t want to go back to your own house right now so just know you’re welcome to come and stay with me. I know my parents would love to see you again.”

  
  


“It’s not that, I would obviously go with you. It’s the stuff with Mrs. Woven. I’m just...worried about it all I guess.” 

  
  


She almost smiles at how Catra didn’t even question coming with her. Four days ago she’d say no without question. Adora wonders what changed. 

She notices Catra’s trembling hand on the edge of the hospital bed and places her own on top of it. “Nothing’s gonna happen to you, it was self defense. But on the off chance that something does, I’ll travel back and fix it so nothing will.”

  
  


“And if it only fucks up present day like you traveling back to save my mom did?”

  
  


Adora pauses. Despite all of the traveling she’s done she didn’t think about that. “I could hide you in my basement…”   
  


“Yeah because hiding from the feds in your basement would be a real fulfilling life to live.”

  
  


“Look, whatever happens we’ll be together. That’s how it’s been since the start of this mess and that’s how it’s going to be until the very end.”

  
  


Catra doesn’t respond and she wonders if she knows that Adora would do anything for her. 

  
  
  
  


Catra, Adora, and Scorpia explain the captive situation to the police that aren’t affiliated with Horde industries and Catra is cleared to go to Eternia with Adora a few days later. Adora convinces Glimmer and Bow to tag along.

On the plane ride there Catra’s head rests on her shoulder as she sleeps and Adora hums peacefully. 

  
  


____________________________________________________________

Adora’s parents immediately pull her into a hug when she arrives, Catra awkwardly standing to the side. But before long Adora’s mom extends an arm.

  
  


“Catra! It’s been entirely too long.”

  
  


They settle into Adora’s room and lay in bed despite it only being the evening. Everything about it feels weirdly familiar to Adora.

  
  


“Why are you looking at me like that?” Catra scrunches her nose.

  
  


“I honestly can’t believe you’re here.”

  
  


She rolls her eyes. “Where else would I be?”

  
  


“I don’t know. But not here. Just a few days ago it seemed like you didn’t want to be around me unless you absolutely had to and even then…”

  
  


“I was angry with you.”

“Was?” Adora’s shocked to say the least. 

  
  


Catra shrugs. “I don’t know. But I do know that I didn’t want to lose another one of my best friends to Woven. Now I just hope history isn’t gonna repeat itself I guess.”

  
  


“It won’t. I’m not gonna leave you again, Catra. I promise.”

  
  


Catra scoots closer and Adora can feel her breath on her face. She thinks about closing the gap with her lips for a split second and remembers why the scene was so familiar.

  
  


Adora dreams of a life with Catra in C’yra’s home, remodeled to look the way it did before she passed.

  
  
  


She wakes up in the afternoon the next day, Catra not in bed next to her.

  
  


Adora finds her on the couch in her parents living room eating a biscuit. Her hair is ruffled and messy and it reminds Adora of the mornings after sleepovers they had as children.

  
  


“Your parents made breakfast.” Catra says with a mouthful of her mom’s fresh biscuits.

  
  


Adora chuckles and makes her way into the kitchen. “I can see that.” She catches a glimpse of the TV as she opens the refrigerator. “Since when do you watch the news?”

  
  


“Since-  _ holy shit _ .”

  
  


“What?” Adora turns her head and sees the headline. The Horde industry riot.

  
  


_ No, no, no. _

  
  


Adora joins Catra in the living room, pacing back and forth. “I’ve seen this before and it’s not good.”   
  


Catra squints at her. “What do you mean you’ve  _ seen _ this before?”

  
  


“I’ve been having these weird visions for several days now-”

  
  


_ “Several days?  _ And what, you thought you should tell me  _ now _ ?”

  
  


“I didn’t know it had to do with the future! I thought I was just being paranoid or something!”

  
  


Catra scoffs. “Well you can  _ magically  _ go back in time why wouldn’t weird visions be related to that?”

  
  


Adora sits down next to her, dragging her hands down her face. “Woven harvested more magic than we know about. There’s no way all of the townsfolk are okay.”

  
  


Catra stares at the television, a look of concern on her face.

  
  


Adora’s fingers play with the C pendant around her neck. 

  
  


Catra looks at her, eyes drifting down towards Adora’s collarbone in disbelief. “You’re not seriously thinking about going back are you?”

  
  


Adora sighs, knowing this isn’t gonna go well. “I can help them-”

  
  


“That’s bullshit and you know it. Just a few days ago I almost lost you because you wanted to to go to that warehouse alone and before that when you traveled back for my mom-”

  
  


“That was different.”

  
  


“How?”

  
  


Adora’s hands begin to sweat. “There was no way out of her dying!”

  
  


Catra freezes, that response clearly striking a nerve. 

  
  


“Wait! I didn’t mean it like that, Catra. I tried to save her I really did but-”

  
  


“Fuck you, Adora.”

  
  


Adora sits there for a moment before wiping her hands on her pajama shorts and standing up. She couldn’t travel in front of Catra. Not now, it made something in her ache.

  
  


“You promised you wouldn’t leave again.”

  
  


Adora exhales, pendant firm between her index finger and thumb. “It’s not like you’ll remember anyway.” 

  
  


Everything goes white. 

  
  
  


When Adora opens her eyes she’s back in Catra’s car. She’s wearing the clothes she had on the day she was held captive by Woven and Scorpia’s not in the car with them. It must be the drive after they took Scorpia to the hospital.

Before she can fully take in all of her surroundings there’s a sharp pain in her head, Catra calls out to her in concern but her eyes shut against her will before she can respond.

  
  


Her eyes open again and she’s seated at a booth in a restaurant C’yra used to take her and Catra to all the time as kids.

  
  


_ Three Catra’s at three different times in her life are sitting in front of her. One looks about thirteen, her hair is messy and her bangs are being held back with a thin black headband. The Catra sitting next to her has straightened hair and her fingernails are long and painted black, repeatedly tapping the table. The last Catra is the one she’d been spending the week with. She has short unruly hair and healing bruises around her neck.  _

  
  
  


_ The one with straight hair groans and rolls her eyes. “Who invited her?” Adora guesses this Catra is the one that she wasn’t there for after her mom died. _

  
  


_ “Not all of us hate Adora y’know.” Middle schooler Catra says, and turns to the present day version of herself. “Right?” _

  
  


_ Present day Catra makes eye contact with Adora. “Right.” _

  
  


_ Adora smiles at her. _

  
  


_ The Catra she never got a chance to know looks at the other two in disbelief. “I get you,” She gestures to the youngest of them. “But you? You know how she abandoned us. How she left us like we were nothing, made new friends like we didn’t even exist.”” _

  
  


_ “Oh please she doesn’t care about us either.” Glimmer appears, Bow standing right next to her. _

  
  


_ The Catra that doesn’t like Adora scoffs. “So she left you guys too huh? Why am I not surprised.” _

  
  


_ Adora thinks this dream is beginning to feel more and more like a nightmare. _

  
  


_ The youngest Catra folds her arms and shakes her head like a toddler. Adora almost laughs. “I refuse to believe Adora left us. She’s our best friend, she’d never do that.” She turns to the middle Catra. “You’re a liar.” _

  
  


_ “And you’re delusional.” _

  
  


_ She looks at the oldest Catra and she’s lightly brushing the marks on her neck. Adora notices the small specks of dry blood on her shirt. _

  
  


_ The Catra that quite literally killed for her. _

  
  


_ “It’s three against two. Adora is a selfish bitch.” Middle Catra smirks. _

  
  
  


_ “I- that’s not true.” Adora says. _

  
  


_ “Oh yeah? Then what do you call cutting contact with your best friend after her mom dies?” _

  
  


_ “I never meant to hurt you, Catra. I know this isn’t real but I’m sorry for not being there for you. I’ll never stop being sorry for it and it’s one of my biggest regrets.” _

  
  


_ The oldest Catra finally speaks again. “Adora’s a lot of things but she’s not a selfish bitch. She saved me more times than I can count nor remember, and helped me with so much this past week out of the pure kindness of her heart.” She looks at middle Catra. “This probably doesn’t make sense but she even tried to bring our mom back. She cares about us.” She looks at Glimmer and Bow. “All of us.” _ _   
  
_

_ “Catra I-” _

  
  


_ Oldest Catra places a hand on top of hers. “Wake up, Adora.”’ _

  
  
  
  


“Adora? Adora, come on you gotta wake up.”

She wakes up to Catra lightly shaking her shoulder. “I’m up! I’m up. My head was just hurting again sorry.”

  
  


Adora looks out the window. They’re at the lookout point and the sun has just risen. She thinks about the night she spent with Catra here just a little over a week ago. 

  
  


Catra sighs. “I didn’t know where else to go.”

  
  


“It’s okay. Wanna get some fresh air?”

  
  


“Sure.”

  
  


They get out of Catra’s car and walk over to a railing that blocks off a rocky area beneath the short cliff they’re standing on. 

  
  


Both of them stare at the sight of the early morning sky for a moment, Catra’s hands gripping the railing while Adora holds her elbows.

  
  


“Catra, I have something to tell you.”

  
  


“Go on…”

  
  


“I’ve been having these visions…and it turns out they’re of the future. And I know this because I was just in the timeline where we were at my parents house and we saw a Horde industry riot on the news. I traveled back despite you not wanting me to because I couldn’t let all of those people get hurt.”

  
  


“That certainly sounds a lot like something you would do.” Her eyes don’t leave the view in front of them. “But why did you come back to this time? To tell me?”

  
  


Adora rubs at her face. “I don’t know. I didn’t want to travel too far back and pass out and I didn’t exactly want to end up in the timeline where I’m at Hordak’s warehouse again. I don’t even know where the events that lead to this start or end but I have to fix it.”

  
  


Catra looks at her and places a hand on her shoulder. “Then let me help you.” 

  
  


“You can’t. I’d have to keep explaining everything to you in every timeline and it’s not like you can travel  _ with _ me. I have to do this alone.” Adora smooths the hair in her ponytail and groans. “None of this makes sense. Every instance in which I went and fucked up time was fixed, by me. This shouldn’t be happening. Everything’s the way it should be-”

  
  


“Not everything.”

  
  


“What do you mean?”

  
  


Catra looks at the ground in front of the railing.

  
  


“Catra…”   
  


“The timelines weren’t fucked up until you saved me from Hordak that day at my place.”

  
  


“Catra if you’re saying that I-”

  
  


She cuts her off. “All the times I died...there’s probably a reason for that.”

  
  


“I don’t give a  _ shit  _ about reasoning in no timeline will I let you die.”

  
  


“Adora, it’ll save everyone.” Then Catra has the audacity to  _ laugh. _ “It’s like the stupid butterly effect you didn’t understand back in fifth grade. I think the first time I...died led up to all of this.”

  
  


Adora thinks about what Catra’s saying for a moment and it makes sense. But she also doesn’t care. “I’m not leaving you again, Catra.”

  
  


“You’re not. It’ll be better this way, think about it. You’ll know where Scorpia is and you can report Woven and Hordak to the police. You can tell everyone about the magic and prevent the riot-”

  
  


“But I’ll also remember you. I’ll remember this entire week and you won’t. You’ll just die by Hordak’s hand, never finding out what happened to Scorpia, and thinking I just abandoned you.” 

  
  


Catra furiously wipes at her eyes. “I know that. But I can’t be the one that gets out of the unscathed. Not over all of these people and your friends.” She sniffles and looks back at the bright blue sky. “I was so  _ angry _ at the world after my mom passed and you left. I took it out on everyone and Scorpia...me taking it out on Scorpia literally led to her being fucking kidnapped. I don’t deserve it.”

  
  


Adora’s eyes water. “You  _ do. _ That was Hordak who took Scorpia. Catra you’re the smartest, funniest and most compassionate person I know. Even though I know you try really fucking hard to be.” Catra laughs and Adora joins her. “And it’s because that’s just who you are. You’ve never listened to anyone in your life, Catra. Are you really gonna listen to the fucking universe?”

  
  


“There’s no other way.” Catra’s voice sounds small. So small that it doesn’t even sound like it belongs to her.

  
  


Adora pulls her into a hug, her hand gently holding the back of her head. “I’ll find a way.”

  
  


“Adora…”

  
  


“I won’t let you go, Catra. Not again.”

  
  


Catra cries into her shoulder for a second before pulling away. “If you go back, promise me that you won’t spread yourself too thin. Promise me that if there’s no other way, you’ll let me go.”

  
  


“I promise.”

  
  


“If there’s no other way I just want you to know that you’re my best friend, Adora. You always have been and you always will be. No matter what stupid timeline it is. And I’m sorry that I was such an asshole for the majority of this week.”

  
  


Adora nods, tears streaming down her face. “I’ll still be here with you, you know that right? No matter where I am through the timelines.”

  
  


“But since you’re telling me, I’ll know that it’s not really you.” Catra lets out a shaky exhale. “So I just want you to know that I love you. I always have, even when I was pissed at you.”

  
  


Adora cries even harder. “Catra, I love you too. And I’m sorry if I ever made you feel anything other than loved and cared about because I love you  _ so  _ much. More than you can even imagine.”

  
  


“Even in our possible last moments together you’re trying to one up me huh?”

  
  


Adora shoves her shoulder. “Shut up.”

  
  


Catra tilts her forehead against hers and inching her lips forward, Adora doing the same. Adora sighs and closes the gap, placing her hands on each side of Catra’s face, pulling her closer to deepen the kiss. She feels Catra’s hands on her shoulders shortly after she does. 

  
  


Catra pulls away. “Remember your promise, idiot.”

  
  


Adora plants a kiss on Catra’s forehead. “I will.” She plays with the pendant for a moment longer before shutting her eyes. 

  
  


Her vision goes white.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> andddd this is finally finished! don't worry about the open ending though i plan on writing a one shot on what comes after because im nicer than dontnod <3 i hope you all enjoyed this fic though! comments/ feedback is always appreciated
> 
> yell at me abt she ra!!
> 
> tumblr: catrasbastard  
> twitter: catrazulas

**Author's Note:**

> hiii! so i rewatched a life is strange gameplay a few weeks ago and was heartbroken but I decided to channel that energy into this since adora and catra’s characters match up pretty well with max and chloe’s. and i’ve already started chapter 2 so it should be up soon. hope you enjoyed! feedback is always appreciated and motivates me to write <3


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